One of the names for God in the bible is "Jehovah-Jireh" ("God Provides"). It can actually be translated as "God will see to it". Probably the biggest stronghold I have had to overcome in my life was a stronghold regarding money. To be honest, I didn't realize the extent to which I held this stronghold until God started "challenging" me on it. When I thought of people having strongholds concerning money, I tended to think of people who were selfish, materialistic, or greedy. Although we can all have those tendencies at times, as a general rule of thumb, that doesn't necessarily describe me. On the contrary, my stronghold was this: for whatever reason, I had this deep-seated belief that God provides only our needs (the bare minimum), and not necessarily our wants. I also had this exaggerated sense of responsibility; that all of the weight was on me. There have been times in my life when I have relied too heavily on my own power and self-discipline (i.e. - my budget!).
The truth is, if you look carefully at the whole of scripture, the heart of God is to provide; He takes pleasure in providing a way when there seems to be no way, whether it's providing a way out when we are tempted, providing detailed instructions for building an ark, or supernaturally providing money to pay taxes.
Sometimes, His provision requires effort on our part; the disciples had to cast their nets in order to reap the supernatural catch God provided (they had just tried fishing under their own power and effort and had failed). When He rained manna from heaven, He expected the Israelites to gather it, although He gave them strict instructions to gather only enough for each day; He didn't want them hoarding it. Other times, His provision required an act of obedience - usually to demonstrate His power or sovereignty; Moses had to strike a rock in order to get water for the Israelites.
It is interesting to me that the next time they needed water, God gave Moses a different set of instructions; instead of asking Moses to strike the rock again, He told Moses to speak to the rock in front of the people. Moses, however, didn't follow the new instructions - instead, he resorted to striking the rock again. Even though Moses was disobedient, God was still gracious enough to provide water for His people, but Moses missed out on the opportunity to personally see the Promised Land because his disobedience demonstrated a lack of belief - Moses put his faith and trust in his previous experiences (albeit his previous experiences with God), rather than in God Himself.
Why might God ask Moses to do it one way, and then later, ask him to accomplish the exact same thing in a different way? Obviously, I can't speak for God, but I imagine one reason might have had something to do with the fact that it's not about the provision, or about the means or method by which it's provided ... it's about the relationship - it's about trusting and following the One and Only Provider. Our role, first and foremost, is always to listen to and obey God.
If I focus too long on how He's provided in the past, or place too much emphasis on my part and not enough on His (or vice versa), or if I focus too much on one particular aspect of His character, my focus and attention is not where it should be. God wants me to see HIm as my Jehovah-Jireh; He wants me to come to Him whenever I have a need, and to trust Him to meet it however He sees fit. The abundant life comes when I allow God to be in control of how much money I have in my life at any given moment, as well as how, when, and under what circumstances, not to mention what I do with it or how I use it.
© I Lift My Voice, 2015.