Psalm 104 – God Provides For You To Provide
He causes grass to grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, producing food from the earth, wine that makes human hearts glad — making his face shine with oil — and bread that sustains human hearts. (Psalms 104:14-15)
Do you know how many steps it takes to get a loaf of bread? Someone has to till a field, and plant a bunch of seeds. Then he has to come back later with a big combine and harvest the wheat. Then someone has to drive it over to the grain elevator. Then someone else has to drive it over to the flour mill. Then some other guy has to run a machine that mills the wheat into flour. Then someone drives the flour to the bakery. Then someone else mixes the flour with eggs and milk and puts it into the oven. Then another guy drives it to the supermarket.
Then someone else puts it on the shelf. Then another guy scans it at the register, so you can finally take it home and make a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich.
But even with all those people involved in getting you a loaf of bread, the author of Psalm 104 says it’s ultimately God who provides bread, wine, olive oil, and everything else we enjoy. That’s why Jesus instructed us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray for bread. It doesn’t just magically appear — we still have to cultivate the crops and bake the bread, or work a job so we can pay someone else to make it for us — but it’s God who provides the necessary soil, water, time, and energy to make it happen. So when you pray for God to provide, you’re praying for him to give you everything you need to provide for yourself.
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