It’s just about time for my baby’s 2:00 feeding. He’s sixteen. It’s amazing how these tens revert to infancy around this age. The feedings are about every two hours. As a matter of fact, I worry about frostbite. His head is only out of the refrigerator for short periods of time. I’m concerned that one of these days an ear could just snap off.
The other day I saw the back of his head in the fridge and said, “Don’t eat dinner now.
We’ll all be eating together in an hour or so.”
“This isn’t dinner. And don’t worry, I’ll be hungry in an hour.”
Not so. He was hungry again in twenty minutes. And you should’ve seen the “snack.” A can of Spaghettios with meatballs, a sandwich with enough lunchmeat on it to feed his entire basketball team, a bowl of cereal, three quarters of a bag of chips, a half a can of Spam, two glasses of milk and two rows of Oreo cookies. For dinner I should just whip up a side of beef. Of course, it’s very possible it can take both sides.
This boy is definitely a carnivore. When I plan the Thanksgiving fixing, I have to ponder exactly how many turkeys it will take. Should I worry I’ll cause a run on the market? I’m picturing my son going back for another turkey leg – every two hours.
Thankfully, I have a God who meets every need. He meets our real needs, not just the meaty ones. Philippians 4:19 says, “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
He is ready and waiting to meet every real need. Of course, sometimes we get a little cloudy on the “real need” issue. Paul mentioned a few verses before, in verses 11-13, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
When we’re depending on the Need meeter for our strength, we find our needs are surprisingly small. And we can have confidence that when we ask Him to meet those needs, He delights in answering. Earlier in the same chapter of Philippians, Paul wrote, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (verse 6).
That’s our charge. Recognize the Need meeter for whom He really is. Instead of fretting, give the anxious thoughts to God. All those worries – even concerns of snapping ears and turkey futures. And be thankful.
Who meets our real needs? Our Heavenly Father. Every two hours. Every hour. Every millisecond.
“He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” - Romans 14:6-8
Excerpted from Amusing Grace by Rhonda Rhea (Cook Communications Ministries, Colorado Springs, CO, 2003), pp. 57-58.
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