"Our Father Knoweth"
It is a great thing to trust God daily and hourly; not thinking we can provide for ourselves and secure ourselves against the power of evil, but to trust God thoroughly. And what is the measure of the supply? Nothing short of "His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." He must glorify Himself even in the falling of a sparrow-for there is nothing great and nothing small with God. He thinks of what His love will glorify itself in.
"My God shall supply all your need!" How could Paul tell that? He knew Him. Not that he had not been in a condition of want, but he had felt the preciousness of being met in it by God. Things may look very dark, but we have always found that, if He led us by the wilderness where there was no water, He brought water out of the stony rock for us there. He always exercises faith, but He always meets it. The coats of the Israelites did not grow old for forty years.
"My God shall supply all your need." He (Paul) was counting on blessing for others. What a comfort! Instead of walking by sight to be walking through this world in the blessed consciousness of what God is for oneself, and so be able to count on Him for others. We find ourselves almost dreading to press a person into the path of faith, but we should not dread, but count on grace for them. Faith is always triumphant. The Lord give us to count on Him always and we shall then say, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4)
"My God shall supply all your need!"
Paul does not say:
God shall supply your need.
Nor-God shall supply my need.
Nor-My God shall supply my need.
Nor-Your God shall supply my need.
Nor-Your God shall supply your need.
Nor-My God shall supply your need.
But-My God shall supply all your need! And that "according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
How could Paul know that? Because he knew God. He knew that, above the prison at Rome and the poverty at Philippi, there was His God, who not only possessed riches in glory, but who would also supply them to His suffering children by Christ Jesus. What a God! How well worth knowing!
JWS
