On the Road Again…with New Provisions
“My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Php 4:19).
we once again undertake our upward journey to a place named Grace, our hearts are full from a recent visit with the Apostle Paul at the Tavern.
Grace is the power of Christ to do God’s will.
Our visual Tour Guide now makes perfect sense. By looking at the illustration we can see that God’s will for each of our lives is measured out as a specific sphere of ministry and influence around our lives. And He has matched that measure with a proportionate supply of His grace – the power of Christ to do God’s will.
Once we humble ourselves in agreement with God and embrace His will for our lives, His grace begins to fill our sphere of influence with power, purpose, provision, and peace. Like Paul we can now say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!”
When we are standing in the center of God’s will, then we have everything we need to be and do whatever it is that God wants for us. Paul said, “God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound to every good work” (2Co 9:8). This says it all!
Remember? Paul told us about this. “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think (i.e., outside your measure); but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (Rom 12:3).
The measure of faith which God has dealt to you is in exact proportion to the measure of God’s will for your life, and the measure of God’s grace in your life.
Because God made each of us unique, we all have gifts differing from one another according to the grace that is given to us, and we are to exercise these gifts “according to the proportion of faith” (see Rom 12:6).
Faith is the conscious awareness of what meets with God’s approval, as revealed to us by the Spirit of God through the Word; and the courageous decision to live within that conviction.
is not merely believing you can do something; it is knowing that you can through the power of Christ – GRACE.
When faith is active in our lives we will not over-extend ourselves into matters that are outside of God’s will. Nor will we through fear and unbelief limit ourselves to doing something less than God’s will.
Presumption, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought, takes us outside the measure of Grace….and leaves us languishing in a place called Grief.
Here, then, is what we know to be true.
God has given each one of us the grace and the faith that we need to do exactly what He has called us to do – no more; no less. Life takes on its fullest meaning and finds its greatest success when we abide in this blessed place – a place named Grace.
Brace yourself; for tomorrow when we turn the corner up ahead….what you will see is going to blow your minds!
Philippians 4:19
But my God shall supply all your need - That is, “You have shown your regard for me as a friend of God, by sending to me in my distress, and I have confidence that, in return for all this, God will supply all your needs, when you are in circumstances of necessity.” Paul’s confidence in this seems not to have been founded on any express revelation; but on the general principle that God would regard their offering with favor. Nothing is lost, even in the present life, by doing good. In thousands of instances it is abundantly repaid. The benevolent are not usually poor; and if they are, God often raises up for them benefactions, and sends supplies in a manner as unexpected, and hearing proofs of divine interposition as decided, as when supplies were sent by the ravens to the prophet.
According to his riches in glory - see the notes, Eph 3:16. The word “riches” here means, His abundant fullness; His possessing all things; His inexhaustible ability to supply their needs. The phrase “in glory,” is probably to he connected with the following phrase, “in Christ Jesus;” and means that the method of imparting supplies to people was through Jesus Christ, and was a glorious method; or, that it was done in a glorious manner. It is such an expression as Paul is accustomed to use, when speaking of what God does. He is not satisfied with saying simply that it is so; but connects with it the idea that whatever God does is done in a way worthy of himself, and so as to illustrate his own perfections.
In Christ Jesus - By the medium of Christ; or through him. All the favors that Paul expected for himself, or his fellow-men, he believed would be conferred through the Redeemer. Even the supply of our temporal needs comes to us through the Saviour. Were it not for the atonement, there is no more reason to suppose that blessings would be conferred upon people than that they would be on fallen angels. For them no atonement has been made; and at the hand of justice they have received only wretchedness and woe.
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