Philippians 4:19 states, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
This is a wonderful promise that we all would like to claim. I remember a little cartoon picture from way back in the “Donald Duck days.” Donald Duck said the caption, “My Uncle Scrooge is a coin collector.” The picture was of a duck on a tiny little bulldozer pushing around a huge mountain of coins. In our economy today many people are wondering how they are going to survive. Revelation 6:6 speaks of extremely hard times financially in the last days. It may seem God’s promise is not true today.
We see in our text that Paul is speaking to the Philippian church. In verses 14-18, Paul is commending them for their generous support of his ministry. We can never out give God. Proverbs 19:17 says, “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.” So we see the Philippian church was in a position to be paid back by God. If we want God to supply our need, let’s first ask ourselves how much we care about the needs of others, and do something about it.
The more we dwell on our need, the greater the chance our “need” turns into our “wants.” Our wants turn into lust which can never be satisfied. Jesus calls us to a life of self denial. This is the path Jesus walked (Mark 8:34-37). In verse 36 He said, “For what shall it profit a man, it he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Solomon, from his experience, gives this advice in Proverbs 23:4-5, “Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”
Another part of this wonderful promise that we often miss is “…according to his riches in glory…” The true riches are in glory—in Heaven. We tend to want earthly gain. It is true, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof…” (Psalm 24:1). And again in Psalm 50:10, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” With the price of cattle nowadays, God ought to be doing pretty good! Actually it’s nothing compared to His riches in glory. The earth will pass away, but never the true riches in glory.
Anything we can take out of our earthly bank account and invest in Heaven is a smart move. Earthly investments don’t profit us one minute after we die, which comes sooner than we think. So God’s perfect plan is for us to live by faith. What a wonder fellowship as He gives us our daily bread. It’s a daily walk, not a lifetime grant.
The rich young ruler of Matthew 19:22 “…went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.” He missed eternal reward and his chance to be one of the disciples of Jesus. We only get one chance at this life—by Christ we can make it if we chose LIVING BY FAITH!
