Overwhelmed by Provision

Earlier this week I stood in line at the fourth grocery store of the day for what felt like far longer than the few hours we’d been out. My eyes were starting to blur as I read labels and prices trying to buy all of the right ingredients for a Thanksgiving feast. As we marched back to the car once again I was overwhelmed thinking about how many choices I had to face in one day about seemingly trivial things.  

In college, I took a class on existentialism and we talked about being paralyzed by possibilities. Maybe it’s a flair for the dramatic, but this phrase frequently pops into my mind in situations like this. You know that feeling where you have so many options in front of you that the thought of picking one threatens to shut your mind down entirely? That’s where I was during this marathon shopping trip.  

As I’ve thought more about it, I’m so grateful that I’m not responsible for providing for myself. I used to think that I was. That if I got the best grades, went to the best school, and led in the right organizations then I could provide whatever sort of life I dreamed of. God had other plans for me. I still did most of those things, but I learned that God was the only one who could provide for me, and that everything I thought I was earning, was really God’s provision in my life. I was exhausted after shopping for a day’s worth of food. I am so glad that God is the one providing for my life and not me!  

What has God’s provision in your life been like? Use this Psalm to reflect on just that.  

Psalm 100 

¹Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. 
²Worship the Lord with gladness; 
    come before him with joyful songs. 
³Know that the Lord is God. 
    It is he who made us, and we are his; 
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 

⁴Enter his gates with thanksgiving 
    and his courts with praise; 
    give thanks to him and praise his name. 
⁵For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; 
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.