He Knows Every Need

Philippians 4:19 (ESV) says, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

When we live like we are in complete control of our lives, we are limited to the natural resources around us. This is why the rich find it hard to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 19:24). Those with more earthly means are less likely to find themselves at the end of their rope. The poor on this earth are the ones who have the gift of needing God every day.

Most of us are rich. If you can get this devotional on your phone and open the link to a web browser, you’re rich. That doesn’t mean wealthy people cannot be faithful believers, but we have a severe disadvantage.

Part of learning to abide is learning to rethink where our help comes from because self-sufficiency is one of the most substantial barriers to living in the Spirit. Self-sufficiency will read this verse and say, “So what?” If we are in the business of supplying every need for ourselves, we miss out on extraordinary grace and kindness from God.

That is not to say that we should live reckless lives and overlook opportunities to provide for ourselves because we have “faith.” Still, there is a reliance on God that we need that comes from the heart. How do we develop this dependency on God when there are so many distractions and detours?

We need to look deeper than our surface-level needs. More than finding the perfect outfit, the newest tech, or the best food, what do we truly need? Our attempts to fill our lives with material things are a reaction to an insufficiency we sense in our hearts. Knowingly or unknowingly, we can fall into the trap of putting a bandaid over a condition that can only be restored through the love of God.

We need to believe that God can supply that need—it comes through his glory. God has solutions for your everyday essentials (Matthew 6), but he is first concerned with your heart and inviting you into the life of the Spirit. This is where God gets real, and the life of faith becomes more than an idea but an everyday reality.

If the power to supply our needs comes from the riches of glory in Christ Jesus, failing to depend on God means living a life largely absent of God’s glory. On the other hand, the more we rely on God and see him come through, the more aware of his glory we will be.

Amen.

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