SETTING off in
the car without our son, on our way out as a date, to a concert, had only one
difficulty. We had left ourselves just thirty minutes to get into the city,
find parking, and get ourselves seated at the venue. We were tense. My wife was
checking her maps to try and get us parking, but it appeared that the closest
public parking was at least 600 metres away. I would drop my wife at the venue,
then do the parking and race back by foot.
We entered the
city with about seventeen minutes to spare. We prayed a rather inappropriate
prayer, “Lord, give us somewhere close to the venue to park.” We looked to the
side streets and, sensing we were close to the venue, we eye-balled one lone
parking spot on the main street. God had provided. We thanked him. We were really grateful!
But had God
really found us that spot? Later that evening, after the concert, we found
ourselves looking for parking again; similar situation, without the time
pressure, but not wanting to walk too far — one lone spot, and again God provided.
Is our Provider
God to be thought of as a provider of car parking spaces?
Or is that a bit
on the glib side of Western “comfort” theology.
Jehovah Jireh is the name given by Abraham of God in Genesis 22:14: “The Lord shall provide.” The Lord provided a substitutionary
sacrifice (a ram) so Isaac wasn’t needed to be sacrificed by Abraham, just as
he provided each of us a substitutionary sacrifice in Jesus — so we might
relate and be reconciled with the Father, even if our flesh still burns to sin.
Car parking spaces are not in the same league.
But it
illustrates a point. We expect God to provide us all sorts of ‘needs’, when our
truest needs we hardly yearn after. How many of us pray for true transforming salvation
experiences? We are usually overtaken by them.
My wife and I
were desperate to get a car parking space, and it was provided to us on both
occasions. We thanked God, but were these spaces provided by God; as selected for us? We could only think that if we
truly felt that God wants for us the bad things we experience. We cannot
contemplate such a thing.
Does God provide
anything or does he provide just the big things, like our salvation? Well, when
we pray, “Give us this day, our daily bread,” we pray for every need; that he who can provide, will provide. And he does,
because we have experienced having our needs met in all sorts of ways before.
It isn’t about the provision of car parking spaces. But it’s in the provision
of patience to endure the frustration
and stress when we can’t find the car parking space that God truly gives. That
is more our true need!
God provides our
real needs and not simply every single ‘need’. God is faithful and just and
will see us through to the day of Christ, if by faith we obey, trusting his
provision.
God does not
save car parking spaces for us, but that is no reason not to thank him when we
do find somewhere to park. We can thank God, also, when we don’t get the car
parking space we want. We thank him that we have the grace to bear the
disappointment graciously — there are many millions of people worse off than we
are.
God is the God
who provides. Let us not only sing the song, but believe its theology, which
causes us to trust the Lord, because of his character and the good things he
has done.
© 2015 Steve
Wickham.
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