I pray all is well with you FL folks. My church in Montgomery sent a work team yesterday. Not sure exactly where they are serving. I remember so well the faithful response of so many who came to our aid in PC 8 years ago after Hurricane Michael…meals served in church parking lots, cleaning supplies offered- and used alongside us- by those who brought them. My heart aches for those putting pieces of their lives back together now. But God is in the midst of even this….
This morning as I awoke a phrase sat heavy in my mind…..
“Spirit led is Spirit fed.” My immediate response to that thought was remembering Matthew 6
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke to people who experienced daily need. Many of them worked hard for food, clothing, shelter, and survival. Others, unable to provide for themselves, sought help from others.
Jesus did not dismiss their concerns.. He taught them to look at the birds of the air and remember the Father's care for every breathing creature of His earth.
“See the birds of the sky, that they don't sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you of much more value than they?
Matthew 6:26
As one writer observes, “this verse is not saying people should be lazy. Jesus is not saying work does not matter. He is saying worry should not rule the heart. The birds work, fly, search, build, and feed their young. Yet they do not live under the burden of human anxiety. God cares for the birds, and they live under His watch. Jesus says people are worth more than birds, so we should not believe the Father forgets us.”
God has provided for me through some tough times, not always exactly as my flesh desired, but always sufficient for the need.
When God holds the reins and guides our lives, He bears the responsibility for what we encounter and has a plan to bring us through it, even when it demands more of us than we think we can bear.
I had a rough week last week. Reports of H. Isaisas were constant, heavy lines of traffic crawled up I-65, waiting lines at gas stations were longer. I could feel the anxiety around me….. and in me…. Not from immediate danger, but from remembered shock and grief and hard labors in recovery from H.Michael. God was good then. God is good now. He provided then. He continues to provide.
I am called upon almost daily to be part of the multitude of hands that serve His church in making provision for others. I want to be faithful, I want to be generous. But there are times, too, when I cannot give all that the flesh wants, but must still remember how necessary provision for what the true need is.
I don’t always remember to distinguish well and respond out of right motive. Sometimes, like some of the indulgent mothers who (out of guilt? laziness? neglience? mindless preoccupation with other things?) simply tosses a pacifier (or a treat?or a distracting plaything?) or gives into a child’s demand without hesitation, without realizing they are fostering a bad habit in the guise of being “a good mother.”
I got caught in that trap last week. It made me angry at myself, and although I regretted it immediately, I let my annoyance with myself flow over on the person who had been inadvertently used to set me up. The enemy knows when and how to manipulate us to pull against God’s leading in the storm.
It is a lesson I have to remember regularly. Sometimes it’s not a matter of simply saying “no.” Sometimes it is saying, “Not at this time,” or “ Yes, but not in the way you expect or feel entitled to.”
Being a spiritual parent to others God is inviting to the Kingdom banquet for the wedding of the Son is hard work, every bit as hard as being the parent of a willful child.
Matthew 22:1-14, yesterday’s Scripture lesson at church really challenged me. I identify with those servants sent into to roadways to invite strangers into the banquet after others have made excuses for not coming. It is not always a pleasant task. It can get you rejected, embarrassed, used, even beaten down. Some who come at your urging will hear, “Welcome to the banquet!” But, clearly, there will be those who, for God’s own reasons, will be sent away. I realized long ago, I am not the one setting the table, just the one sent to invite any who will come.
And speaking of the banquet……
I remember a particular moment in 1997. I’d asked a question in prayer earlier and I thought about that prayer inquiry one day and suddenly God answered the question. The answer wasn’t actually a direct answer to my query, but it was an explanation of God’s response to the circumstances that led to my question and what God had done in response to those circumstances. It was such a twist on the whole situation and my question that I was left speechless, but full of gratitude and joy and an entirely new insight into God’s work of redemption. As.I processed God’s response in awed silence, I heard Him say, “Welcome to the banquet.” It was the moment when any question about God’s Presence in every circumstance of my life was completely removed forever.
CBB 10/13/26