When You're Able To

"O manna, where are you? Has God reversed
His plan to provide for those in His field?"
At the labor of reaping, I'm immersed,
Saving lost souls, His glory to reveal.
We risk the curse of Satan to jeer and mock,
If God's workers lack food or other needs;
His promise not kept. Shall its failure block
Salvation for some. or the sowing of seeds?
God's answer came, "Have you sought needed bread,
Or waited for Me your lack to provide?
Have you refused a first chance to be fed,
Or spurned plainer fare, e'en pushed it aside?
Look not for divine gifts, when plain will do;
I will not supply, when you're able to!"

Too many Christians 'live to eat' when God would rather you 'ate to live'. God loves frugality, when it's combined with generosity. The Children of Israel were very short on remembering all that God had done for them. Less than 4 months in the desert, they built themselves a golden calf to worship because Moses tarried a bit too long on Sinai, talking with God. Forty years living in the desert for more than one half million people was hard, but God made it easy by providing manna, a sort of bread, for food. Each morning they picked it up off the sand and had plenty to eat. Very soon, though, they complained to Moses that it didn't taste good; they needed meat. So God, in divine patience, had millions of fat doves to fall on their camp, and they gorged on bird meat. That, too, grew wearisome for them.

A while back we had the 'hamburger war' among fast food restaurants. Most of them sold their biggest and best hamburgers for a dollar for several years. I loved it! Imagine a Burger King Whopper for $1 when it had been at least $2.49! Imagine my surprise when a lot of my Christian friends refused to eat the $1 hamburgers; instead, they would order the $3.50 ones! I couldn't understand this nonsense one bit! One day, I got up the nerve to ask a fellow minister why he ordered the most expensive hamburgers instead of the delicious $1 ones. Imagine my surprise (and horror) when he said, "Bill, I don't want people to think I'm too cheap to buy the best!" And I was busy 'getting around' a delicious Whopper! It made me feel like a poor beggar.

Some dreamers who want to serve God think that because He promised to supply our basic needs, and they had told Him they were going into 'full time Christian service', they quit their jobs and plan to go to Africa or Japan, thinking that God will give them the wherewithal. To make it worse, they have a wife and 3 kids! I admire their love for Jesus; I admire their faith; but I question their practicality. Furthermore, they don't truly understand God's promise to His disciples. You must first eat $1 hamburgers, if they're available and no matter what others think, or live on crackers and peanut butter; and save your money, by keeping your job, if necessary. You must pay off your credit cards and other debt first. You'll find God's help after you do your part.