There are times when times are tough. Times when you come to the end of the money before you come to the end of the month. Perhaps the doctor delivered news you’d rather not hear. Or maybe your children are struggling and you aren’t able to make a difference. It is in times like this when we need to be reminded that God is the God of all circumstances and that even in our darkest moments, God provides His grace, His provision, His care, and His love.

We had been pastoring for 1 1/2 years or so and along with working at the church John was working at Wal-Mart to help us pay the bills. He had gotten paid and we bought our groceries. It had been a “good check” so we had stocked up on meat, eggs, milk — pretty much everything that we would need for the next two weeks or so. That was Thursday. Saturday morning we got up and discovered the refrigerator was wonderfully warm — and all of our food was spoiled. The church sent a representative to an auction and bought a beautiful “new” to us refrigerator. But we still didn’t have food. Before the refrigerator was delivered, a couple of vans from a church in a city about 70 miles away showed up, knocked on our door and completely covered the floor of our living room with grocery bags filled with food. They brought two coolers with meat, milk, and eggs in them. There was a box with 144 rolls of toilet paper — we know because Phillip counted them. They didn’t know that our refrigerator died. They had decided to bless us and our church about two months before our refrigerator died. God provided in a miraculous way. He knew when we would need it.

Christmas was always a season of profound blessing for us in our early years of ministry. We have always pastored small churches that had limited resources. During those early years, large churches would “adopt” us and give us the kind of Christmas that these larger churches would provide for their own pastors. One year we were adopted by two churches. It was amazing. One of the churches provided a food pounding that filled our pantry to the point of overflowing. The other church gave us gift certificates to a local grocery store. The gift certificates provided the fresh food items we needed to combine with the food pounding items to provide  delicious and nutritious meals. God provided meals for months.

In our first church, a couple in our church would show up at our door the week after Thanksgiving every year with potatoes to eat all winter and fresh oranges to keep our boys healthy. When our district leader or an evangelist would be eating Sunday lunch at our house, the same couple always showed up with huge roast or a big ham. God provided — as He always did.

God’s miraculous provision for us in every instance had one thing in common. He used His people to meet our need. People who were called by Him to serve and to care for others. Did those people know how much of a blessing they had provided? Do they know that even today our children — our young men — will look at each other during difficult times and say, “God always provides?”

One year we had faced some unexpected financial challenges and it was getting close to the beginning of the school year. We were getting things together for the boys to return to school. One Sunday morning after church, a lady from our congregation came up to John and I to tell us that she and her husband would like to provide our children’s school supplies. The boys and I met her at Wal-Mart. She looked at my sons and instructed them to each pick out the following items: 3 pairs of jeans, 5 shirts, 7 pair of socks, 7 pair of scivvies (unmentionables), a pair of shoes, a new coat, and a backpack. She then picked up school supply lists from the display at the front of the store and proceded to fill her cart with everything on three school supply lists. In addition, she purchased extra pens, pencils, and notebook paper. The following Sunday, the boys were dressed in their new clothes to go to church. Nate performed a perfect model’s pose and said, “Because Frances is Jesus with skin on, I’m Nathan with jeans on.” Once again, God’s provision was abundant. And once more, He used His obedient children to meet our need.

The examples I’ve given have been of God meeting our tangible, physical needs. But our God meets EVERY need we have. When our needs are tangible — He meets them. When it’s financial — He provides. If we are sick — He heals. When we need encouragement — a card, a note, or a phone call comes. God meets our needs — sometimes through the obedience of His children and sometimes through His omniscient power and a miracle. No matter how He chooses to do it, God provides.