His Eyes Are on the Sparrow

Matthew 6 : 25 - 26, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? NKJV

On occasion, the Lord will allow me to have a special encounter with Him. He does this just to let me know that He is with me and my family. Yesterday, while I was sitting in a drive-through lane, my thoughts were drawn to the way God provides for animals in the wild. Though it may seem strange now, at the moment it was just a normal train of thought. As I pondered on God's love and ability to care for and provide food for all the animals in the wild, my mind took another direction. Without me knowing it, the Holy Spirit was about to show me a deeper realm of God's love for us, His children. I began to think about the difference between wild animals and those who are domesticated. Animals that are in captivity, such as are in zoos, have to wait for the appointed time for someone to feed them. Instead of them going out and hunting their food, they have to depend on someone to bring them nourishment. However, the animals that are in the wild have the freedom to eat on their own schedule, provided there is food available. 

After this series of thoughts had gone through my mind, the Lord said to me, "When people depend on others to provide for them, it places them in bondage to them. However, when men trust in the Lord to provide, as Jesus taught them to do in today's passages, they are free from dependence." Our heavenly Father doesn't want us to live in bondage to fear over whether our needs will be met. 

I was enjoying being taught by the Lord at the drive-through; however, the best thing about this experience was about to be revealed to me. As I pulled up to the pay-window, the waitress told me that the person in front of me had paid for the meal. At that moment, I realized that God was teaching me to trust Him for our needs. Instead of just using scripture, God proved His love for me by having someone else meet the need. Do you suppose it was a coincidence that I was thinking about God providing for humans and animals, and then He had a person take care of our meal? No, it was ordained.

Instead of living in servitude to worry, we must simply trust in our heavenly Father to take care of us and our needs. Worry has never supplied one need in my life, and it hasn't taken care of you either. Instead of living in bondage, God wants us to remain free of fear by trusting in Him to provide.

The next time you're at a drive-through window, and you hear the Holy Spirit instruct you to pay for the person behind you, obey Him. One small gesture of love can be used by the Lord to impact that person's life in a powerful way and perhaps even to change their perception of God.

Free Does Taste Better,
Pastor Asa Dockery