Depend on God for all your needs. Does that sound impossible to you? Is it something that can really be realized in this life — that God will supply all of your needs? I invite you to take a look at a few words from God, recorded in the Bible, that tell us that is exactly what God wants us to do. And if he wants us to do that, will he not fulfill his part?
Luke 12:22-28 And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. “For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!
“And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span? “If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith!
What are these verses saying to you? Jesus is telling us that his father, God, cares more about people than anything else he’s created and made. That word, “people” includes you and your loved ones. If God can take care of the birds and the fowl, can’t he take care of you? All we need to do is get in relationship with him and trust him to do so. Let’s see how that works.
1) Learn about God from the Bible (the Word of God)
2) Trust what God says by acting on his Word
3) Receive the results God has promised in his Word.
That’s the simple 3-step process to learn how to depend on God for all of your needs. Let’s go through each of these steps to clarify and provide some more depth.
Learn About God from The Bible (the Word of God)
God has reveled himself and his will through the written Word of God. The Bible tells us about the original creation, the fall of the top angel Lucifer, the world we live in now, the fall of man and God’s promised solution to redeem the entire creation, foretold in Genesis 3:15. God would send a savior into the world which he called, “the seed of the women” who would destroy the the devil, his works, and his influence in this world.
The rest of the Bible shows how God fulfills this promise. You’ll learn about Noah and Abraham, Jacob and Issac through whom the promised seed of the woman would come. You’ll learn about how God called Israel out from among the nations to be his people and how Israel continually turned their back on God to worship false gods. You’ll see how God’s warnings to Israel went unheeded and led to Israels captivity in Egypt and Babylon. You’ll see how God never forsook his people but how they forsook him all the time, yet his mercy and love was never withdrawn.
In the pages of God’s Word you’ll learn about the birth of his only begotten son, Jesus, the seed of the women, and how he lived his life. You’ll see Jesus, the exact representation (image) of God doing God’s will on earth even as it is in heaven. You’ll see how Jesus worked with the lowest of people and how he confronted those who thought they were better than everyone else because of their knowledge and position. You’ll see how those very people Jesus was sent to help turned on him and set him up to be crucified.
Then you’ll learn about the most fantastic, life-changing, world-changing event in history: the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the grave. God physically raised Jesus from death and gave him a new, glorified spiritual body that doesn’t have blood as it’s source of life. You’ll see how Jesus instructed his earliest followers after his resurrection to trust in God — to depend on God for all their needs — and that he would never leave us or forsake us.
By reading God’s Word, your faith will build. I didn’t make this up, God says it right in his Word.
Romans 10: 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
God doesn’t expect anyone to believe because someone says it’s true. He provided ample proof in his Word of who he is and what he’s doing in the earth. Anyone who wants can learn about God. If you can’t read, he will surely send you someone who can, or who can teach you to read. The entire Bible is also available in audio format now so you can listen if you can’t read. The Bible today is an “open book” and is accessible to all, even in 3rd world countries through specific ministries taking the Bible to them.
Even if the written or audio Bible is not available in an area, God promises that if any person seeks God, God will make sure they get the information they need.
Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Trust what God Says by Acting on His Word
This is the fun part! To depend on God for all your needs, you need to trust him. We already learned that, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” As you learn God’s Word, pray to God. Talk with him. I’m not talking about repetitions statements that you recite whenever you pray. Jesus warned against such prayer and said it wasn’t prayer at all. Prayer is intimate conversation with God your father. Talk to God as you would talk to anyone you love — your spouse, your child, your parents, your loved ones… just talk. Be real with God and express your emotions — he wants the real you! He’ll understand and he’ll make himself known to you in whatever way you will be able to receive it.
Prayer is just that — simple communication with God in your own language. This is how you develop a relationship with God, which is the same way you build relationships with people. You talk to people to get to know them and for them to get to know you. The more intimate you are with your conversations, the more intimately people get to know you. The same is true with God. While he knows the number of hairs on your head, through prayer you’ll get to know him as well. If you don’t believe me, just try it consistently for a few months and you’ll see for yourself. I say “consistently” because of the way the human mind works. We live in a fairly rational world. Prayer seems irrational to some people because they can’t see or touch God. God tells us to pray and as we act on that Word of God, we see what he means and why. If you are consistent with prayer you will see what I mean in actuality.
Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Receive the Results God has Promised in His Word
Don’t worry about God doing his part — he is God Almighty, the creator of the heavens and earth! He knows what you need even before you ask, but asking him is your privilege. He wants to build a relationship with you and that requires you to speak to him. He will answer in whatever way will communicate to you.
Matthew 7:9,10 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
One of the many unique things about Christianity is that God is someone you can personally get to know and communicate with as a dear father and friend. Religions of the world claim they worship God but the God they claim to worship is impersonal and can’t be approached by “mere man.” But the God of the Bible is very personable. In fact, he used a name for himself in the Bible that shows this very truth — it’s Jehovah. When you see God called Jehovah, it will always be used in the context of him personally working with his creation through relationship.
God will do his part as you act on his Word. He delights in nothing else than blessing his people and all you have to do to receive those blessings is to get in relationship with God.
Get to Know God and Depend on God for All Your Needs
If you don’t know the God of the Bible, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, what are you waiting for? The best way to get to know God is through the Bible and prayer. The Bible is God’s Word from beginning to end. The Bible declares God’s will to mankind. Some of it is hard to understand, especially at first, but once you’ve spent some time in it you’ll start to see the topics it presents coming together in coherent agreement. The Bible presents the good news (which we call the gospel) of God’s plan to everyone who wants to learn about it and become part of his kingdom.
The world we live in is not mankind’s ultimate destiny. A long time ago, some of the angels and mankind himself decided to walk away from God and do whatever they wanted on their own. That resulted in what we call the ‘fall of man’ and the corruption of the perfect earth into what it is now — in a fallen state. But even in this fallen state we see the beauty God intended and the exquisite order of his creation. Some of the most renown scientists and mathematicians have boldly declared that the very existence of the universe is impossible without God creating it. This is called “divine design” in intellectual circles, but the Bible calls it “creation.”
Learning to depend on God is a process. We are born without God and without hope in this world (Ephesians 2:8). Through prayer, Bible study, and acting on what God says in his Word, we get know God personally as our Father. This is possible because he sent Jesus, his only begotten son, into the world to die for man’s sins that caused the fall we spoke about earlier. You can become a son of God yourself by confessing Jesus is Lord and believing that God raised him from the dead.
Romans 10:9 If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
Get to know God. Become his child and depend on him for all your needs. Your life will be much, much better!