God, My Provider

Episode Notes:

These episodes make up today's program:

"Facing the Future with Faith"

"Budget Wisdom from the Money Saving Mom"

"Don't Squander Your Trial"

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Dannah Gresh: Here’s Money Saving Mom, Crystal Paine, with a tip to save you money. She says, rather than taking your family out for pizza you hit the grocery story and . . .

Crystal Paine: . . . you buy two pizzas, and you add some fruit or something for the side, and you're good. That could save you $20 or $30 every single week by just that simple switch.

Dannah: People everywhere are starting to feel the financial squeeze. Today we’ll talk about where to be creatively practical . . . and where to trust.

Welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh. 

Did you know that inflation is at a forty-year high! Yes, a forty-year high! Rents are up so high that people are trying to get out of their lease to find smaller spaces in cities. And groceries! Have you been shocked at what milk, produce, and meat costs recently? I’m just wondering how hard it is for people to feed their families these days. I mean it’s just me and Bob, and that grocery bill is making me nervous. It gets me thinking about all the other things that could increase in cost.

Well, I want to spend some time encouraging you today to remember that God holds everything together . . . yes, even our finances. We’ll spend sometime today hearing from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth and also receive some money saving tips from the Money Saving Mom, Crystal Paine.

But here’s my question for you: what if all the financial bad news is actually an opportunity!? Yep, you heard me correctly.

During the 2008 recession Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth received an email from a friend in his eighties. He actually copied her on the email he sent to his children and their mates. This email Nancy found challenging to her own faith and way of thinking, but it also really encouraged her. She shared it with us then and we brought it out now because what Nancy has to share is still true today. 

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: The subject line at the top of the email read: “God alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I shall not be greatly shaken.” Of course, you recognize that as Psalm 62, verse 2. It’s a long subject line, but I thought it was such a powerful subject line for an email. “God alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I shall not be greatly shaken.”

Here’s what this dad in his eighties went on to say to his children:

Dear Family,

As you all know, we are now living in times of considerable economic turmoil. Businesses, large and small, as well as non-profits and even local churches are laying off staff. Of the three ladies in our office, all three of their husbands have been let go. A pastor of a large church told me yesterday that they can’t meet payroll this week, even after letting some staff go and cutting everyone’s salary, including his own.

I believe that our own family and the church in America needs to pray that God will use these stressful times as an opportunity to awaken His people. It is not too late. This might be the hour when God brings a revival. Everyone’s retirement fund has been reduced, often 30%–40%. The main god of our times (money, and what it promises), that god is beginning to topple and to be seen as an idol that cannot rescue—just like the Philistines in 1 Samuel chapter 5 shuddered when their wooden god Dagon fell over and broke on the altar.

As the effects begin to touch each of our lives, we have a wonderful opportunity to put our beliefs into practice. What do our hearts really trust in? As long as we have a visible support system—job, friends, savings account, police and fire departments—we are tempted to place undue trust [that’s a key word] in something or someone other than the Living God.

I want to remind all of you dear children that just within our own family we have seen the unmistakable hand of our God time and again. He has proved Himself faithful all the days of our lives, and He is the one who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Let me say, by the way, this is the role of godly, elderly parents to remind your children of who God is, of His faithfulness. When you’ve lived 80-some years, you’ve got a lot of track record. You’ve seen what God has done. Well, he goes on to illustrate this.

Mom and I were married with no money, no job, no automobile, no home, no health insurance, and six to seven years of graduate education yet to be completed and paid for.

God is able! He miraculously led us all those years and provided our daily bread; gave us what we needed to feed, clothe, and house the five of you; got all five of you through Christian schools and through college and into homes of your own. Is He amazing, or what?

And all along the way God performed not only “regular miracles” which we take for granted—sun rising each morning, our bodies functioning, etc.—but also some extraordinary miracles.

You may remember how just days before going to Haiti as a family we prayed for an additional $935 for airfare that we needed. We told no one. One morning I found an envelope on the stoop from a young man whom I had not seen or talked with in three years. He had been overseas in the Army. We didn’t know he had returned, and he had no idea we were going to Haiti. We opened the envelope and found exactly $935 or $940.

Now, this man who is in his eighties can be pardoned for not remembering the exact amount all these years later, but it was just what was needed. He says,

The note simply said, "Use it for any ministry overseas.”

Then he signs this email,

Our God is truly awesome.

Dad

Then he puts this verse at the bottom, “My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121, verse 2.

I just love that email. I was so encouraged as I saw the heart of this dad who has walked with God and found Him to be faithful over the course of a lifetime, decades of seeing God at work. A dad who wants to assure his children and their children, who I’m sure have seen this email as well as many grandchildren and some great-grandchildren, he wants to assure them that God has never failed him, and God will not fail them. He wants to encourage his children to place their hope in God. He’s trying by this means to urge his kids to pray that God would use this current economic crisis to bring about true revival and spiritual awakening in our land.

By the way, when that dad and mom were going through the trials that he described early in their married life where they had no money, no job, no car, no home, no health insurance, and six to seven years of graduate education yet to be completed and paid for; if they could wind the clock back and remember what it felt like in those days, don’t you think they felt some moments of desperation? Don’t you think they were tempted to fear? Don’t you think they wondered how this was all going to end up? They didn’t know that God was writing a story in their lives. God was writing a chapter that decades later they would be sharing with five grown children and their mates and a ton of grandkids and great-grandchildren.

Now that leaves me to ask this question: What is the story that God may be writing in your life today? As you think about where you may be facing lack or uncertainty or struggling for provision, whether it’s economically or in other areas; what if God is wanting to write a story in your life today that maybe decades from now you will be sharing with others who need to know that God is faithful, and God never fails His children?

I’m thinking about how many families don’t have stories to tell like the one about praying for $935 to go on a mission trip to Haiti, and then seeing the Lord provide exactly what was needed. How many stories have not been written because we’ve taken matters into our own hands, and we made things happen ourselves, or we didn’t stop to pray, or we didn’t venture out in faith? You see, God wants to prove Himself to be great, and when we get out on a limb so far that there’s nothing or no one to help us except God, then we find out what only God can do.

Seasons of adversity, economic or otherwise, do not catch God off guard. God knows everything that goes on in our world. I know that we know that theologically, but the question is, “Do we really get it?” Do we get the implications of that? Do we grasp the fact that God knows?

He knows what’s going on today in your world and all across our world. He also knows something that none of us knows, and that is, what lies ahead, what’s around the corner, what’s coming in the days ahead. We have a God who is wisely and lovingly and graciously orchestrating all things in this world and in our lives to fulfill His good, eternal, redemptive purposes and to glorify Himself.

I’m so thankful we have a God who not only knows, but a God who cares—a God who cares about how adverse circumstances affect the lives of His children. He cares about how those circumstances affect your life. Those circumstances at times may be intense, they may be painful. I know that’s true for many of our listeners in this season of economic crisis, but those circumstances do not have to overwhelm us. They don’t have to steal our peace. In fact, in the ultimate sense—I’ve said this often, and it’s coming to mind again during these days—anything that makes us need God is a blessing.

Dannah: Such encouragement and a great reminder from Nancy. Did you catch her words at the end? “Anything that makes us need God is a blessing.” Even though that email and Nancy’s talk were given during the 2008 economic crisis, you might be feeling some of that angst even now, right? Do you find yourself asking God to make your paycheck stretch? Do you find you’re asking God to make your food last a little longer cause you’re raising three teenage boys and they are—as they say—eating you out of house and home? 

Okay, I’ve been there! With one teenage boy and two teen girls who gave him a run for . . . my money, I guess! But seriously, have you stopped to thank God for the fact that a lack of money makes us need Him. It reminds us who our Provider really is! What an opportunity this time in history is to remember: our lack allows Him to demonstrate his provision in ways that increase our faith. 

Friend, these are hard times. You may be tempted to charge those high schoolers for room and board at this point. (I don't advise it.) But God is increasing your faith, and that’s a really good thing. Keep Him in the equation.

But I understand that in these harder times we need to also look for ways to scrimp and save where we can. Some of us need help with creative ideas to spend less. Erin Davis chatted with Crystal Paine about this recently on the Revive Our Hearts videocast and podcast, Grounded. Here’s Erin asking Crystal for help on behalf of all of us. Let’s listen in.

Erin Davis: Can you give us some simple ways that we can start living more frugally, without money management becoming our full-time job? I'm a word girl, I'm not a number girl. I can easily get overwhelmed by programs or apps where it's like, oh, this is a lot. What are some simple steps we could take to start finding some margin?

Crystal Paine: Well, first off, you should know that I am not an app girl. And I am not techie at all, even though I am a blogger, I don't know how that works out. 

Erin: That’s encouraging.

Crystal: But I just like to keep it simple. And so, I really encourage people to start from the perspective of what can you do. It's so easy for us to look and be like, well, I can't save much money because I have a really small income, or I live in an area where there's a high cost of living, or I have five boys that I have to feed. And if we start from that can't do attitude, we're probably not going to go very far. Instead say, “What can I do? What do I have in my hand? What do I have at my disposal?”

I really encourage people to start with your grocery budget, because everybody has to eat, everyone has to buy groceries. It's a really, really simple way to cut your budget. You can start there. Don't even worry about all the other parts of budgeting, just start with your grocery budget and say, “Okay, what is a realistic amount that we could spend at the store? And how much could we save?” Like I talked about, even $10 a week can go really far if we are giving that somewhere. 

And so, I encourage people to start with, you know, maybe $30 to $40 per person per week, set that as your budget, if that feels super small, go to $50 or $60 per person, but start somewhere, have a budget. Then have the goal that you're going to whittle that down by 1–3% every single month. And so, then you're going to start getting creative, you're going to start trying new things and experimenting and figuring out just little ways that you can slowly shave it down. 

Over time it's gonna add up to make savings.

Erin: So practical. It actually encouraged me because that's about where my family is per person. Those numbers you mentioned, we just have a lot of people in my house. But that goal of shaving off 1%– 3%, I can do that. Actually, I had to do a pretty elaborate budgeting exercise for seminary recently. I had to look at where all the money was going, which is so wise. What I discovered is a lot of our money is going out to eat. That seemed like a no brainer of a way to shave. I mean, we could eat the same hamburger at home for a fraction. Are there moves we could make in our out-to-eat budget that you would recommend?

Crystal: Yes. Just paying attention to where your money is going. And so, if you're spending a lot of money eating out, is there a way that you could really simply eat at home? Maybe you're eating out three times a week. Could you cut it down to two times a week? Maybe you buy frozen pizza. I love the Aldi take and bake pizza.

Erin: Me too.

Crystal: It's five or six bucks. And it's like, okay, you buy two pizzas, and you add some fruit or something for the side, and you're good. That could save you $20 or $30 every single week by just that simple switch. And it's not going to take you a lot more time. I'm always trying to think of ways that you can get a great return on your investment. But you're also saving. If you look at the savings, it's like for this five minutes of effort, I can save $20.

Erin: Yeah. For me, and I imagine for everybody, it's going to keep coming back to the heart. Because on Friday night, when I want to spend $45 on ordering pizza, it's because I'm tired. I just want a break from the cooking and cleaning. But if I think, man, if I saved $30 of that $40 every Friday and gave it to a ministry that I absolutely believe in, it's been worth popping the pizza in the oven, which doesn't take me any longer than ordering it, because it's going to something of value. So, I think we have to keep coming back to those heart issues again, and again. And again. You've inspired me to change Friday night pizza night up. We order pizza every Friday night, but I love those Aldi pizzas too.

Dannah: I'm going to have to try those Aldi pizzas, too. It is amazing to see God stretch that paycheck, and I love to get ideas, don’t you? Such practical help from Crystal Paine, in conversation with Erin Davis. Now, I understand that every one’s food budget is going to be different. You might already be strapped and thought the numbers that Crystal threw out were outrageous. But the point isn’t the numbers. The point is to have a plan, to make a budget and stick to it, to figure out if there is a way to squeeze anymore out of your current funds. And, plan, plan, plan, plan.

You can listen to that entire episode of Grounded, we have a link at our website ReviveOurHeart.com/weekend and look for "God, Our Provider." We also link to Crystal Paine’s website, which has more incredible ways to save money.

There’s a book in the Old Testament that uses the word "remember" over and over again. Do you know why? Well, because hard times—like the ones we’re facing now—can give us amnesia! We forget God’s goodness. We fail to remember that He is our Provider.

Deuteronomy 8, verses 2 and 3 says: "And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness."

Now, why does God lead the people He loves into the wilderness, places where there is no water? Well, Deuteronomy 8 goes on to tell us why. Don’t miss this. Let me read it: "That he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger."

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth reflected on this passage in Deuteronomy when she was teaching in Numbers 20. They were almost to the end of their wilderness journey. The Promised Land was the next step. But once again, there was no water.

I want us to listen to our friend Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth as she speaks about the Israelites tendency to be forgetful and our own spiritual amnesia in hard times. Here’s Nancy.

Nancy: God let you hunger. God let you go thirsty, we could add in there, as we reflect on Numbers 20. God humbled you. He let you hunger. This wasn't an accident. This wasn't a mistake. This wasn't God falling asleep or God just missing something. He let you hunger, and He "fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know [that He might teach you, humble you, test you, teach you] that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deut. 8:3).

So, you see, throughout their history, God intentionally led His people into situations where they experienced lack. He did this on purpose. And His purpose was to humble them, to test them, to teach them dependence on Him. But they didn't get the point. Again and again and again, they resisted what God intended for their good. They squandered these opportunities for growth.

Do you recognize yourself here? How many times do we find ourselves backed into a corner, in a hard place, a challenging place, in a place where there is lack, and we start to resent and resist the very circumstances that God has brought into our lives to humble us, to test us, to teach us, to bring us to a greater place of dependence upon Him.

Because, I'll tell you, if the sun were always shining, if we always had money in the bank, if your husband was always nuts about you and your children were always perfectly obedient, you never had any health issues, etc., do you think that we would spend our lives in dependence upon God? If there's any chance for us to rely on ourselves, we will. Right?

But God doesn't want us to rely on ourselves because "the arm of flesh will fail you; you dare not trust your own." We have to lean on Him.

And so He pulls away some of these props, these things we think we can't live without—like water, for example. And He says, "You want to see where your provision comes from? Look up! Look to Me!"

And so we see in Numbers 20, going back to that passage, verse 2, rather than trust the Lord, rather than receive this opportunity for good, they assemble themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And we read yesterday in verses 3–5 about how they quarreled against Moses, and they accused them, "We wish we had perished when our brothers perished before the Lord. Why have you brought this assembly of the Lord into this wilderness that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, and there is no water to drink!"

So, get the picture: For thirty-eight years, these Children of Israel, this generation had paid the price for the unbelief and the rebellion of their parents, and now they are following in the very same steps. This response is wrong on so many levels.

Just think about it. First of all, they're selfish. They're insensitive to the loss that Moses has just experienced of Miriam, his older sister. And instead of trying to console him, they attack him. Instead of being sobered by the reminder of how quickly God could snuff out their lives, they basically leave God out of the equation. Where is God in this whole whining, this whole temper tantrum?

When we forget God, then we're going to be vulnerable, too. We're going to be prisoners to our emotions and our wild imaginations. And we're going to be over-the-top in our accusations and our criticisms, and we're going to draw wrong conclusions as they did.

Dannah: Such great words from Nancy about remembering His faithfulness. His faithfulness to provide your rent, your mortgage check, to provide food for your table, to provide clothes to wear. He is a good, good God who provides for all our needs. Don’t forget . . . always remember.

And next time you get anxious about the balance in your bank account, maybe put this verse from Philippians to memory. Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 

Now friend, take a deep breath, breathe, and trust.

I feel weird bringing this up after all we talked about in this episode. But if during these difficult times you have a little extra and want to share, I don’t know maybe you don’t have a lot to share, but you feel Him speaking to your heart and asking you to give. 

Sometimes God asks us to give out of our plenty and sometimes out of our want. If you feel like God is nudging you to give a financial gift to Revive Our Hearts, you can do so by calling 1-800-569-5959. I feel like I need to say, we will be faithful to treasure that sacrifice as we take the truth and the hope of God and help people remember His faithfulness all over the world. Again, that number is 1-800-569-5959, or go to ReviveOurHearts.com/weekend and click on today’s episode. It’s called "God, Our Provider."

When I say revival, what comes to mind? A big tent? A loud preacher? A choir all dressed in white robes and swaying to the music? Nightly meetings?

Next week on Revive Our Hearts Weekend we’ll talk about revival and what it really looks like.

Thanks for listening today. Thanks to our team: Phil Krause, Dylan Weibel, Rebekah Krause, Justin Converse, Michelle Hill, and for Revive Our Hearts Weekend, I’m Dannah Gresh.

Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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