Herein are two key ingredients to peace within our individual lives. We all desire to receive protection, just as we all desire to receive provision. The harsh reality is we need both, but what do we do from a faith perspective when we don’t receive what we need?
Protection is the BAD we DON’T get.
Provision is the GOOD we DO get.
Let me explain:
PROTECTION
My life verse for protection is Isaiah 52:12, which says, “... for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” Another version has it that, “The LORD your God will lead you and protect you on every side.”
People talk about and many believe in guardian angels. Faith commends to us the idea that even as we live in the physical realm there’s is a spiritual realm beyond what we can see.
Our belief in divine protection over our lives and over those lives of our loved ones must run beyond our circumstances if our belief is to prosper to the extent of feeling protected.
This is a mindset of peace that transcends all our circumstances. The mindset is of feeling protected beyond our circumstances where the very nature of them can lead us to feeling exposed.
This is where we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Show me a faith that continues to expect good from God amid catastrophe and I will show you a faith that people notice.
Importantly, having lived this personally, what is needed is the belief that won’t let go of the promise of the goodness of God whatever happens. This is the faith of Jacob from Genesis 32—(which is another article entirely).
The fact of our faith boils down to this, that our prosperity is not limited to our circumstances in this physical life, but that our prosperity is linked to the unchanging circumstance in eternal life.
Beyond our feeling exposed in this life, our protection is eternally assured from the aspect of eternal life. When we borrow this eternal life mindset, and it’s ours in the blink of an eye, we literally feel beyond fear for what may happen. We smile at the wind.
Put another way, when we feel exposed and especially vulnerable we remember our divine protection from another world, we thank God for it, and we keep moving in hope as much as we can.
Protection, overall, is about praying for what we don’t want to get.
Provision, on the other hand, is about praying for what we do want to get.
PROVISION
My life verse for God’s provision is Genesis 22:14, which is literally where Yahweh-Yireh is said in the English, “The LORD will provide.” The concept behind this verse is a mindset of expectation that does not fail for faith in the provision of what we need.
But as per the protection mindset, we must continue to believe in this provision mindset even when, and especially when, we are deprived of provision. Do you see the power in this mindset? Such a mindset cannot be conquered.
What faith asks of us, or better put demands of us, is the ability to believe for provision especially when there is none. Yes, I know, this doesn’t make sense in a worldly way, but remember the concept is an eternal concept.
Put another way, if we don’t receive what we believe is necessary provision, we can ask ourselves if we really need it, or if we can survive without it. We can survive without many things we might previously have thought were essential.
When all is said and done, when we don’t have what we need, our opportunity in faith is to continue our hope on expectancy that what we need will be provided at the proper time. If we have resolved this as an attitude, we have resilience when the attitude can’t be shaken.
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The idea behind this article is the combining of two concepts: the idea that every human being needs protection and provision, WITH the idea, which is situated against the reality of the first, which is when we’re deprived of the protection and provision we need.
Faith gives a person the capacity to be thankful for their protection and provision whilst giving the person hope when either or both are missing.
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Those who have ever been counselled by me may have heard me pray the words at the end of a prayer that speak about the protection and provision of God as blessings. I see these two, protection and provision, as vital in outworking of faith and life.
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