“My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:18)
Right off I see that it is God who is the one doing the work here. It is God who will meet my needs. Now I know that often my needs are met through the kindness of others, through a paycheck, and even through the church. But in all of these, it is ultimately God who is meeting my needs through these channels. God is the one doing the work here through others.
Secondly, I notice that God is meeting my needs, not necessarily my wants. I know this seems obvious, but try believing this when it feels like your needs aren’t being met. I know many single people who would love to be married. I know a few people who live in constant physical pain. If this verse is true, why then does it seem that so many needs go unmet? That’s a fair question. That’s a question that if I was honest with myself, I might ask the same thing. The answer, of course, is simple but difficult to accept sometimes. The answer is that we must believe the truth of these words and let life follow after. If I believe God will meet my needs, then I must believe that what appear to be unmet needs are not actually needs at all or else they are still yet to be filled. Either way, I must take God at His word and live with the situation believing that He will meet true needs in His time.
The other day I received a call from someone trying to understand what “according to” meant. Since this person was a few days ahead of me in the devotionals, I had not yet done this verse. Despite that, I had a great time discussing this with him (and Lyanne) as we tried to understand the meaning of “according to”. And what we concluded was the more important matter was the object of “according to” (i.e. what our needs were going to be met “according to”). According to Paul, my needs are met according to his “glorious riches in Christ Jesus”. Now imagine if my needs were met according to his “unmerciful wrath” or his “leftover crumbs”. That would not be any encouragement at all. In fact, that would not give me any confidence that my needs would be met at all, and even so, they might only be barely met. But since my needs are met according his “glorious riches”, I can believe that my needs will be met abundantly, extravagantly, gloriously. When I look back on my life, I find that to be so true. God has not merely barely met my needs; He has abundantly supplied for me over and over again.
When life is difficult and my needs don’t seem to be met, I must remember…no, I must believe that God is meeting my needs not just according to a measly resource as a last resort, but according to His greatest riches in Christ Jesus. I pray I never loose sight of that. I pray that I might be more than content with His providence. I pray I might rejoice in the richness of His generoous hand upon my life.