JEHOVAH JIREH

... Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son.
And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering, so they went both of them together.

Genesis 22:8,9

This is a portion of the record of Abraham trusting God to provide as He said that He would.

If you read the record in Genesis 22 you will see that The Lord did in deed provide a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.

This was to be used as his sacrifice for sins because a sacrifice is required.
You can see the shadow of the story was to show us that God would provide a lamb for our sins in Christ, His Son.
He did.

I heard some teaching that taught that God would apply pressure to us in order to humble us and I couldn't agree with this teaching.

The reason comes from scripture and it also comes from being in a hospital with people who are dying that believe the diseases in their bodies is God trying to humble them.

So now I am praying and showing them that it is God who heals.

I have had patients talk to me about the wilderness journey that took the Israelites 40 years and the trip would have taken less time if they would have humbled them selves.

The trip took forty years to demonstrate the long suffering mercy of God.
Seeing that none of us has truly arrived in our journey or lives in a week, it would stand to reason that they would be no different.

The Father will not press us to arrive either.

The word prove in the bible has a couple of meanings one is to examine and one is to provide.

The Lord told Moses that He would rain down bread from heaven every day for him and the people and that they should go out and gather a certain rate daily, that He might examine them, whether they would believe Him or not.

My question is this, what is pressing about being provided for daily?

Where is the pressure in waking up and knowing that you didn't have to work for the food, that you didn't have to sow but you reap every day at the same time?

I looked and I couldn't find the pressure coming from God all I could find was the provision.

The New Covenant tells us to examine our selves and prove our selves.

If God's Word says, If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

What would make you believe when you belong to The household of God that you wouldn't be provided for?

When the LORD speaks of examining Israel after He brought them out of bondage, He wants to know if they will rely totally on Him for provision or will they rely on them selves as their forefathers had done.

King David cries out a self serving and absorbed prayer in Psalm 26 read it, because we can become so proud of our accomplishments that we forget that it's God providing.

Can you see what David is saying?
I have not sat with vain persons!
I have hated the congregation of evil doers!
I will wash my hands in innocence!
Others have done this and that...
But as for ME!...
I
I
I
Really?

David's prayer puts me in mind of the rich young man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to be saved.

This young man believed that he had done good and done all of the religious things that he should do as his father's before him had instructed him.
Yet the Scripture says that this young man couldn't accept that it wouldn't be his assets or his deeds that would save him.

He walked away from the lamb of God grieved and unrighteous in the eyes of God.

Beloved Friends,

God is not testing or applying pressure to us.
It was the devil who applied pressure to Job but it was God who proved and provided a way for Job to endure.

It was the enemy who pressed Eve and deceived her into believing that the pressure was from The Father.
It was the messenger of Satan that buffeted Paul, but God who provided His grace that Paul could withstand it.

It was Nebuchadnezzar who was against the God of the three Hebrew boys who pressed them into that furnace and God's Grace in the person of Jesus Christ that walked around in that fire with them and brought them out unscathed.

There is no pressure in trusting that God will provide light in the day to guide and light in the night to guide.

There is no pressure in knowing that God will trouble your trouble and provide for you daily.

Examine what you have understood about The Father.
The Lord says let a man examine himself.

Study to show your self approved.

Romans 12:2

Jehovah Jireh our provider not our oppressor.

Love Y'all