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The Hidden Provision In His Name M. C. Lang

It is one of the royal paradoxes in this life, that God chooses to redeem times of suffering, of lack, of illness, of heartbreak, of loss; times when by no choice of our own, our lives and desired futures are burning to the ground; when, through our own choices we lose everything; when relationships are damaged or ended; when we cant buy food to feed our family; that is, He chooses to redeem these things by transforming them into invitations. When your stomach is empty, He invites you to be full of Him; when your wallet is drained, He invites you to be rich with His provision in Christ; when all is lost, He invites you to nd and know Him. This is the hidden provision lurking in the background of our lives, in this temporarily-broken creation. ! We see this hidden provision throughout history and scripture. We see it in David through the long-suffering and victorious arc in his psalms; we see it in his time in exile, hunted by king Saul, and sustained by the Spirit of the Lord. We see it revealed when his own son, Absalom, comes to usurp his throne, and David willingly leaves the ark of the presence behindand essentially, the promises of the Lordtrusting God to provide for him, whether he ever sees Jerusalem and the ark again. We see this hidden provision constantly in the life of Jesus, who sums it up well when he says, Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. We see it in the long march toward the cross, as Jesus submits again and again to the will of His Father, even to the point of death. We see it in history repeated again and again. I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who writes so profoundly out of this hidden provision, against the backdrop of Nazi Germany and eventually a concentration camp. ! We even see it in the sparrows, of which not one falls to the ground dead, apart from the Fathers care (Matt 10:29). In this, Jesus so poignantly shows us that even they are held together, sustained by the invisible provision offered by God. Yet why do Ito the exclusion of the hidden provisionxate so stubbornly upon the visible provision? The provision we all know and rely upon: the money in our bank account, the food in the fridge, the roof over our head, the plans we have carefully laid for retirement. ! As you can tell, I have been thinking of provision lately, in part because of my own circumstances, and also because there always seems to be somebody preaching about money, or bleating for more giving, or promising ten-fold returns on offerings, or launching a new church building program. You have prosperity preachers and you have piety preachers, you have activists and you have contemplatives, you have run-of-themill evangelicals and catholics, reformed thinkers and orthodox; and they all seem to add their own contours to the idea of provision. Some believe God wants us all to be rich. Some believe we should give away all we have. Some believe we should live

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simpler lives and help the most destitute with our giving. Some believe we should volunteer in soup kitchens rather than just throwing money at the problems. The variations are endless and mind boggling, some more helpful than others. In fact, it appears to me that some of these contours are malignant tumors in the body of Christ, while others are perhaps benign; regardless, I think we often miss the point. ! Job did not miss the point. He was rich, had a large family, was healthy, and he feared God. Then he was poor, his children were killed, he suffered terribly, and he was angry at God. Then he was rich again, had a new family, was healthy, and he knew God. In the interim he met God, and everything changed. I dont mean changed as inhe got his wealth, health, and family back. I mean changed as in he knew God for the rst time. Yes, he knew of God before, he revered and feared him, maybe even loved him. But he did not know God, at least, not in the intimate way he knew him afterward. In his own words: My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Job 42:5 NIV ! Of all the contours we have formed around the idea of provision, Job makes me wonder how many of them are truly founded in, and draw us toward, intimacy. In my limited experience, most of the teachings around money, while at times well intentioned, are rigid systems we work and try to control. Some of them outline the secrets of how God invented the economy to work, and how we can turn that to our advantagewhich was supposedly Gods intention all along. Some of them are nothing more than the behavioral outlines of the morality surrounding money. Some of them serve the practical realities of running a congregation. The problem I think though, is that Jesus did not leave us a system called Christianity, and therefore didnt give us a blanket process to handle and control money. We have made it that at times, but its not the Kingdom. What Jesus did do however, is invite us into an ever-deepening, everbroadening, ever-healing relationship with God; the sort of relationship that can avor who we are, and how we deal with money on a heart level. As such, I am beginning to think that our thoughts on provision should begin and revolve around that reality, instead of a systemic response. ! In approaching it this way, I have been pondering the two provisionsvisible and hiddenand the two ways we can relate to that provisionthe worlds way and the Kingdom way. The most common way of relating to provision is the worlds way. It is another system, and I think very common in all of us. The world system is built upon the strength of men and women; it is what we can create and attain for ourselves; fundamentally it is a survival-of-the-ttest sort of system. As such, it lacks the hidden provision altogether, and if you live in that system you will have to work that system for your provision: physical, emotional, intellectual, and soulful. The lack of the hidden

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provision makes those of us working the world system slaves to visible provision. It also makes our lives futile and ultimately hopeless, because we instinctively know that our purpose, the deeper meaning and fulllment in life, is found in the hidden provision. ! This brings us to the second option: relating to provision in and through Christ, and His Kingdom. And, if we live in the Kingdom, in Christ, we soon nd that He is our provision; so much so, that even in lack we will nd our Spirits full to overowing. This creates a freedom in the Kingdom, and it is the freedom from the futility and hopelessness of the world system, and slavery to material things. ! The beauty in all of this is that the Kingdom is hidden amongst the world. This is another royal paradox: that the wheat and weeds are sown in the same eld. This interpenetration is what allows the world system to take on the clothing of church, the language of church, and the appearance of faith, but still contain futility and be dependent on the efforts of men and women. This will always be a problem, and has frustrated many Christians. But turnabout is fair play, and the Kingdom is alive in the world, hidden in plain sight. It is almost galling that the world system seeks so desperately to infect the most religious places, while the Kingdom inltrates, explodes, and becomes most visible in the least religious and most broken places. In the end, what this means is that you dont have to stop working or running your business or going to school, if you want to live in the Kingdom. You dont have to be a pastor to relate to provision in Christ. On the contrary, you are already placed to know the Kingdom, and for Christ to make it known through you. What it does mean is that you surrender your work and business and everything else to Jesus, and follow Him in all you do. ! I guess what Im talking about is making provision relational, instead of physical (where it is all about our physical needs and wants and desires and abilities). But this of course immediately raises the question of how we receive and live in the Kingdom. Like most Kingdom issues it is simpler than we imagine: we just ask in His name. What this means is this: when I ask for something as I live in the world system I am not asking in his name, I am asking out of my best judgment, or fear and insecurity, or any number of things; the point is, I am asking out of my own wisdom and strength, which means I am asking in my own name. Much of what we ask for, even pious spiritual things, are being asked for in this manner. However, when I begin to join in the process of surrender that God is drawing me into, and Christ begins to be all there is to me, then His desires begin to avor mine, and what I ask for I ask from within that relationship. That is asking in His name. It is relational, not a simple phrase tacked on to the end of a prayer or request. It is not magic, you cannot slap in Jesus name onto the end of any prayer and expect it to be answered. This is why when Christ says we will receive anything we ask for in His name, He is not lying. When we ask in His name He has already determined to give it, we are just coming into agreement with Him. This is a magnicent process because it transforms our requests from attempts to fulll

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perceived needs (born out of fear of lack, greed, insecurity, etc.) to intimate transformations of our heart and mind. They are no longer so much requests as a point of surrender, and agreement with the will of our loving Father. Ultimately, it is more about sinking into Jesus than about getting something we need. In the process we are drawn deeper into Christ, who is our true provision, and thus we are well fed even when we lack. ! I will admit that living this can be difcult, and that the world system can appear tempting. It has been rather scary for my wife and I in regards to nances for the last few years. This is due to the vocation we feel Jesus has called me into, and the fact that it doesnt pay much currently. Naturally, there are times when I feel a tug in my heart to run off and get retrained or nd a different job. I feel the necessity to provide for my family as acutely as anybody else. Yet, when I face these ideas I have invariably found them all run through with overwhelming futility. Why? Its not that there is anything wrong with education and jobs. Its not that Im opposed to doing something else. If Jesus was leading me to another job tomorrow I think it would be quite right in fact. Except, He isnt leading me to run off anywhere; He has me where He wants me right now, and so to do something else would be full of futility, as it would be entering into the world system. You see the difference between the Kingdom and the world system isnt about what youre doing, its about whether you are doing it relationally in Christ, or apart from Christ. And in the Kingdom, the provision God is currently supplying you, whether it is that hidden provision in the midst of lack, or a heaping pile of wealth, is dependent upon and found within Christ himself. Any provision apart from Christ will enslave you, and will be all run through with futility. This is the transcendence and power of the Kingdom. It is not of this world and therefore does not rely upon the powers of this world. It is not beholden to wealth, physical means, strength, numbers etc. and so its power becomes even more apparent in the weakest places, in the poorest places, in the emptiest places, for there is nothing else there to clutter our view, to put our faith in, no vestiges of hope left that if we work the system one more time it will save us. ! In spite of all this, there are days I hear the seductive words of the prosperity preachers and my imagination wonders what life would be like with more money; how much easier would life be? Then I look out the window and see a sparrow foraging in our yard, and Im reminded of another royal paradox: Those that seek life must rst lose it.

*Related denitions in this article from the Dictionary of Langisms:

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1Royal

Paradox: A self-contradictory truth that God uses to draw us to Himself, and to draw His Kingdom into us. A conspicuous mystery God uses to both hide and reveal Himself.