God Meets Your Need When You Need It

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:9

 A baby is wholly dependent upon its parents to do everything for it. But as the child grows up, the parents expect that child to do more for itself, from walking to running. As the child becomes an adult the parents are still there, still part of their life, but maturity is the order of the day.

It is the same with us as Christians. God is tolerant of our ignorance and childishness when we don’t know any better. Yet as the years go on if we are still “in diapers'' there is something very wrong with us and our lack of faith and maturity.

"It's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet, and what is sand." — Madeleine L'Engle

God wants us to mature as Christians just as we want to see our children grow up into healthy adults. God’s tolerance and patience is not endless. 

Those of us who have suffered sickness, disease, affliction of any sort over the years have come to depend upon God and hopefully have grown in wisdom and understanding. 

Like a child who wails for all the world to hear when pain enters their life in some form, we too at the beginning of our afflictions wail and bemoan our suffering and the unfairness of it all. But over time we must get beyond our childish reaction to pain and suffering. I do not say that lightly or without regard to just how horrible pain and suffering are in the life of a believer, yet we have a Savior who suffered much, and remained faithful in His suffering.

Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him Hebrews 5:8-9

Christ Was perfect in His suffering. He suffered unjustly, without having done anything wrong. And often we also suffer without having done anything wrong. We can wail and moan about how fate has wronged us, or we can turn to our Lord’s example and never lose sight of the fact that God controls our fate.

No one gets through life without pain and suffering. We are surrounded by turmoil and troubles. Pain is a part of life. How we respond to pain and suffering is up to us. We can react with faith and hope, remembering all that the Lord has already brought us through, or we can go into a fetal position and forget we have a Heavenly Father overseeing the entire universe.

We all depend upon God. But it is time for many of us to get out of our spiritual Depends diaper and grow up in the faith of the Lord.

Prayer: Dear Lord, help us to remember that although we may have no control over the events in our lives, You are in control of everything. Open our eyes and strengthen our faith as we mature in our walk with You! Amen.