“I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Philippians 4:12
As a child of God, we must learn that we serve The Sovereign God, The God that does as He chooses in our life. Our destiny is not in our selves, our destiny is in God’s hands. The Psalmist wrote these words, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.” Psalms 37:23 The word “ordered means - to be erect or to upright or to appoint – let us liken it to erecting a building, a building does not build itself, but someone makes all the choices for the building. Likewise, is our life, and God is the builder setting our life in place one step at a time all the way to the end. Listen to the Psalmist again, "My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. (3) He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. (8) The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore." Psalms 121:2 - 3, 8 It is only our limited understanding and our limits in life that causes us not to rightly understand this. However, God has no limits, God is Omnipresent and Omniscience and there is nothing He cannot do, all things are absolutely in His Sovereign hands. Sure, we cannot properly understand this, we are limited in everything, therefore understanding God and His ways are impossible. Concluding that our understanding is a gift from God through the power of the Holy Spirit that we have any understanding.
The word “provision” means - the action of providing or supplying something for use – and here it is your life that God is providing or supplying. Sometimes Christians makes the mistake of likening God to man, but God is not a man nor is He anything like a man. God is an eternal Being that was once the only being in existence, and in time He created all things including man. Therefore, God has the right to do as He please with His own creation. We have no rights over God’s ordained will for us because God is the Master Builder of our life. “So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.” Romans 9:16 Therefore, we must learn to accept what God has ordained for our life and continue to ask the Lord for help, mercy, grace, and guidance. Some folks want us to think that in life we have power, that life’s choices are within our own strength, but believe them not, God has ordered our steps in life, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD:”. We live, we move, and we have our being only by His grace and mercy. Acts 17:28 “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.” God has made us what we are and we should be content in what our life is in Christ.
God’s provisions for us are His ordained will in our life and sometimes it is hard for the believer to understand what or why God is doing something. Again, this comes down to a revelation from God through the Holy Spirit, we only understand what God allows us too. Our attitude and reactions in life depend on how much God allows us to understand of what is happening. If we understand the word “contentment” we learn through the experience of our biblical studies and life to trust God’s will for us and be content in whatever state God puts us. Paul wrote in verse 12 “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” Sometimes these things happening in our life brings us high and comfortable and sometimes it puts us in desperate need, but our faith in God’s Sovereignty will allow us to be content. In verse 18 Paul wrote, “But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.” Paul found his contentment in the spiritual resources abundantly provided by Christ. Because Paul knew that whatever he needed, whatever he had, whatever was happening, that God has supplied all his needs. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Verse 19
Folks, it is about understanding God and His way He has elected for each of us, learning to be content in where He puts us, and understanding whether we are up or down in life, God will never leave us or forsake us allowing us to be content. Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” 1 Timothy 6:6 - 8 "But godliness with contentment is great gain. (7) For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. (8) And having food and raiment let us be therewith content."
