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Uncertainty

If we truly believe that God is over all, then it must follow that He is the engineer of our needs as well. We will often think of Him as the Provider but seldom as the One Who has created the need to show Himself as Provider. Grasping the truth that my needs are not dangers or risks but rather introductions to Him and to His faithfulness turns me from fear and uncertainty to excitement and joyful anticipation.

He is not only the Provider of the provisions required to meet the need but also the Provider of the need to require the provisions which He is able and ready and willing to deliver. And why all this? To teach me about Him and His ways, to reveal Himself in me, to set my feet on solid rock, to demonstrate His faithfulness, power and love.

What will be next?

How can I be sure?

How can these things be?

We spend what we have

Of what we had

But not of what we have.

Yesterday provides to the hour

But tomorrow too has its needs,

And yesterday’s provision

Will be no more

When tomorrow arrives

To demand its share.

And if today

There is nothing given

I will have no yesterday

To meet the need of the hour

When that hour comes.

From where do our needs come?

Do they not arise

From Reality?

Then they must be met by the same.

By the same

They will be met.

And because all things proceed

From the Master of all,

Therefore provision meets the need

As the sun dispels the darkness

And happiness the gloom.

Why should I doubt?

Why should I fear,

Knowing the power,

The wisdom,

The love

And the ways of my Keeper?

My needs are His,

His provision mine.

As the waters break open in spring,

As the sun rises at dawn,

So the time of my provision draws near.

Only the time causes us to question

His faithfulness,

And it does so

Only if we know it

Better than the Keeper Himself.

Yet even Time many times

Has proven Him faithful.

So I will wait,

With suspense and great expectancy,

To see how He will show Himself faithful

And rest in patience and hope

As the farmer who has sown his grain

And, seeing nothing in the field,

Fastens his eyes to the sky,

Knowing he is powerless

To do,

To hasten the day.

He has taken what was left

Of yesterday’s bounty

From today

And placed it in the basket

Of tomorrow.

But only He who is the same

Yesterday, today and forever

Can cross the bounds of time

On our behalf.

The question is:

Have I planted for tomorrow?

God knows.

The harvest will testify

Whether I have labored or not,

And how well.

It is in His hands.

But even now I have

What is my need:

A knowledge of His ways,

A faith to carry me

In this hour of uncertainty

So that it gives way

To assurance.

We see the shoots break ground,

The green against the black.

Sure promise makes its way

To announce glad tidings

Of greater things to come.

We are here;

We have been here before.

We may be here once more,

Or many times.

But always we have seen

The vehicle

To bring us here again

As He has promised.

Therefore,

I believe.

Lethbridge, Sept. 30, 1984

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