As Leah and I are in the trenches with our current issue of support, my wife has done it again. She has found a way to remind us both that we are with God and he is for us. She forwarded this to me a few days ago from a daily email she receives called “My Utmost for His Highest.”

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:7-11 (NIV)

Jesus is laying down rules of conduct for those who have His Spirit. By the simple argument of these verses He urges us to keep our minds filled with the notion of God’s control behind every thing, which means that the disciple must maintain an attitude of perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek.

Notion your mind with the idea that God is there. If once the mind is notioned along that line, then when you are in difficulties it is as easy as breathing to remember - Why, my Father knows all about it! It is not an effort, it comes naturally when perplexities press. Before, you used to go to this person and that, but now the notion of the Divine control is forming so powerfully in you that you go to God about it. Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those who have His Spirit, and it works on this principle - God is my Father, He loves me, I shall never think of anything He will forget, why should I worry?

There are times, says Jesus, when God cannot lift the darkness from you, but trust Him. God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural Father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. Keep the notion of the mind of God behind all things strong and growing. Nothing happens in any particular unless God’s will is behind it, therefore you can rest in perfect confidence in Him. Prayer is not only asking, but an attitude of mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. “Ask, and it shall be given you.”

Have you ever experienced amazement in how all of the details of life fall into place, almost as if there’s some divine plan or some terrestrial orchestration? At the same time, have you ever skipped over some blessing from God because of preoccupation?

Let’s be honest here, I’m not doing well with the unknowns in life at the moment. And I’m not doing well with how those unknowns are stacking on top of each other. Leah and I have had a conversation recently in which we talked about how most of our life currently is filled with things that are out of our control. We’re forced to wait. And there’s nothing we can do about it. Selling our house. Seeing monthly support committed and beginning. The list goes on. It seems like there’s a lesson in their somewhere, but that doesn’t make it easier in the moment, does it?

In those moments, what sustains me are stories like the one I’m about to tell you. Some time ago, we were blessed with two full rolls of stamps ($78). At that point, we had no idea how on earth we were going to use so many stamps. Yet, here we were with two full rolls. Around that same time, a friend of ours gave us an HP 6P Laserjet printer and three replacement cartridges; each cartridge is capable of printing 1000+ sheets. What would we ever do with that much ink, but hey, ink’s expensive, huh?

Here we are months after these experiences and it’s all clear that provision has been there for us all along. We’re now printing support letters and envelopes like crazy and sending those letters thirty at a time. It’s a good thing we have stamps. We’re using what God provided when we had no idea he had done so.

You can imagine the scene I experienced yesterday then, when I’m feeling overwhelmed with the task of raising $8000 dollars a month in support and a friend sends me an email to say, “Hey, Kevin. I have two books of stamps, could you guys use those?” Then I knew that God was still there providing, as he had been all the time. I didn’t realize that he was still working because I stopped remembering. So he reminded me.

So, have you ever skipped over some blessing from God because of preoccupation? Have you ever experienced amazement in how all of the details of life fall into place, almost as if there’s some divine plan or some terrestrial orchestration?