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Editor’s Note:  “When loads of newborn diapers were included in the grocer’s cast offs, I told my husband, ‘Expect a call from the Foster Care office with a request that we take in a newborn baby this week.’  Sure enough, the next day, we welcomed a preemie baby into our family for foster care.”  So shared my sister in law when she explained why their family’s favorite name for God is Jehovah Jireh.  In response to God’s call to adopt handicapped children and provide foster care for needy children, they had seen God miraculously provide for the needs of these children, often before they knew they had the need.  In this month’s devotional, Cheri explains the meaning of Jehovah Jireh and how we can trust Him to meet our needs before we know what those needs are.
 

My husband is out of work.  I am faced with a choice.  Worry about how we will pay our bills or trust God to provide for our needs.

Jehovah Jireh is a name of God which is a source of great encouragement and hope in all aspects of our lives and especially for our family right now.  This name of God means “the LORD will provide.”   When it comes to God, I think we miss the full impact of the word “provide’”  The English meaning of provision is made up of two Latin words which mean, “to see beforehand.”   God sees our needs before we have them. Because of who He is, and the powers He holds, He is able to provide in means far beyond our comprehension. He is the Provider. God sees the past, present, and future, so He alone is able to anticipate and meet our every need.  Ephesians 3:20 tells us that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or can imagine.  Right now He knows our needs for the future, and in His perfect plan, He is seeing to it that they will be met.  He met our greatest need of salvation through the sacrifice of His Son and our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.
    

It is of great importance that Jehovah Jireh is introduced to us through a man whom God had called to sacrifice his only and loved son.  In Genesis 22, God calls Abraham to take his son Isaac to a mountain and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. In faith and obedience, Abraham sets off to the mountain with wood, fire, a knife, and his son.  As they are walking up the mountain, Isaac questions his father, "Where the lamb is for the burnt offering?”  In faith, Abraham answered,” God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” 

Once they arrived at the place God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and prepared to sacrifice his son.  As he was about to slay Isaac with the knife, the angel of the LORD called out to him and told him not to lay a hand on his son because of his faith and obedience.  Abraham then looked into the thicket and saw a ram caught by its horns.  He used this ram as the burnt sacrifice in place of his son.  There Abraham called that place, “The LORD Will Provide.”  The Sovereign God allowed the ram to become caught in the thicket just when Abraham needed it.  His timing is perfect.
         

Abraham expected God to provide for his needs, whether it was a sacrificial lamb or resurrection for Isaac.  He presumed on what he knew about the character of God.  His past experience with God created security in Abraham for this moment of need.  In this moment we see the fatherhood of God clearly demonstrated.  Fathers who provide for their families cultivate that same sense of security in their children as well.  These dads anticipate the needs of their children and work so that before the children experience hunger there is food in the cabinets. The children presume, expect, and have confidence that their father will provide.

What needs do you have - financial, emotional, spiritual or physical?  We can learn from Abraham.  The LORD, Jehovah Jireh,  provided for him through his faith and obedience.  What if Abraham had procrastinated and did not obey the Lord immediately?  Would the ram have still been in the bush?  What if he had relied on his own strength or tried to solve this problem on his own?   To be honest, I may have questioned whether or not I was hearing the LORD clearly when he asked me to sacrifice my child. On the way up to the top of the mountain, my thoughts may have been on how I was going to save my child. I may have talked myself out of what the LORD had just asked me to do, allowing my emotions to get in the way of trusting Him.  Don’t we do that at times when the LORD prompts us to serve him? As women, we try to fix things. We like to take things into our own hands.  Abraham shows us that through obedience and trusting in God’s ways, our needs will be met.  God’s ways are higher than ours.  Trusting is resting in Him. 
      

The LORD is teaching me to be still and wait upon Him and I am learning how to do that as I choose to  believe with all my heart that the LORD will provide a means for my husband to provide for our needs, just as God has called him to do so.  I thank God for the faith that He has given to me.  I trust in Jehovah Jireh. 
Encouragement from Scripture

“If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”         Romans 8:32

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
  Hebrews 4:16

  “Look at the birds of the air: they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”
 Matthew 6:26

“The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.  You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.”    Psalm 145:15-16

Prayer  

              
Dear Heavenly Father,
           We praise you Jehovah Jireh.  You are the provider of all our needs.  In your sovereign hand you hold all that we need and give it to us in your perfect timing.  Your ways are higher than our ways.  Grow our faith Father that we may be obedient to your ways.  Praise you Jesus for providing our greatest need as you paid for our sins with your blood.  Help for us to be still and wait upon you to meet our every need.
                         In the name of Jesus,
                                Amen.