HOW GOD MEETS ALL OUR NEEDS
Harry Foster
"My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Jesus Christ." Philippians 4:19
HOW could Paul be so positive when he did not know what needs the Philippians had? As the church had grown since he had so hurriedly left it, there must have been believers there whom he had never seen. How could he address all the saints and speak so dogmatically of all their needs, when he did not know them? He did not need to know them. He knew his God. And so it was out of his own rich experience of divine sufficiency that he commended them with all their needs to his own proved Lord: "My God", he assured them, "is the One who will assuredly supply all your needs". His was more than a general statement about God; it was coloured and reinforced by what he himself had learned. This personal reference to his God also suggests that he has information to impart as to how God meets our needs. In our search for help we turn back to the beginning of this letter and ask just what were the qualities of Paul's God which are so calculated to provide all our needs. We have four chapters before us, and each will help to clarify this great truth for us.
Chapter One. The God of Happenings
I suggest that the first chapter speaks of God's ability to turn every experience which we can have to good account. For the believer, He is the one who is in full command of all that happens. "I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel" (verse 12).
The allusion here is to his imprisonment. The Philippians had first got to know Paul when he was thrust into the inner dungeon of their own prison. Wonderful things happened, then, in answer to prayer. In a marvellous earth-shaking experience Paul and Silas were set free and all their hearts had been filled with rejoicing. This time, however, their dear Paul had been a prisoner for a long time and there had been no release for him in spite of all their prayers. What had gone wrong? Was this a need that God could not meet?
The apostle was clearly concerned to assure them that nothing had gone wrong -- in fact everything was turning out for good and for [91/92] God's glory. "The things that happened to me"! What a catalogue of apparent calamities. If Luke had sent them a letter about it all (which is more than likely, since he knew them so well), they would have the details of those happenings which we can read in Acts 21:10 onwards. They would thus know of the mobbing in the temple, the fact that he had literally to be carried away by Roman soldiers to prevent the angry crowd from tearing him to pieces. They would have known of the plots, the chains, the unjust delays of insincere governors who were looking for bribes, the storm and the shipwreck, the much rain, the cold and the viper in the firewood, all culminating in the mystery of the long drawn out captivity in the Roman prison.
What strange and painful 'happenings'! Could not the God who opened prisons so easily have met Paul's needs by opening his? Could not the Saviour who so easily calmed the storm have made it calm and safe for Paul? Peter was not only released from prison in answer to prayer but the tyrant Herod was struck down by divine judgment. Could not Peter's God have met Paul's need by doing the same with the tyrants who kept Paul captive? Of course He could. But He did not. So one of the first lessons we must learn about God's meeting of our needs is that He has a way of not repeating Himself, but of changing His methods. He did not work for Paul in Rome as He had formerly worked for him in Philippi. This was no problem to Paul who wanted to assure his friends in Philippi that this new phase of God's dealings with him was bringing greater blessings than ever. He had been sovereignly brought to Rome where God had a special purpose for him. If the journey there had been a strange one, it had all been overruled by divine wisdom and power. It is true that when the fierce tempest struck their ship, God did nothing to mitigate its fury, leaving them in apparently hopeless circumstances for many dark days. But in the middle of the gale He sent a special heavenly messenger to His servant. He did not this time speak peace to the winds and waves, but He did something even better when he filled Paul's heart and mind with the peace "that passeth all understanding" (4:7). At every turn and in every circumstance, God met Paul's needs in ways which brought blessing to many and glory to Himself. From his prison the apostle could make the claim that Christ had been exalted in those strange years of testing, only asking for prayer "that now, as always", Christ might be exalted in his body (1:20).
Paul's words not only tell us more about his God, but suggest to us ways in which He meets our needs. He allows circumstances and men to work against us, and then overrules all the evil to bring salvation to sinners (v.13), encouragement to other Christians (v.14), and joy to the heart of His tried servant (v.18). Death itself, the great enemy, can only come when He wills it, and then it will bring gain to its victim (v.21), and will certainly mean that the one involved has no more work on earth to do for his Lord (v.25). Paul's God was the One who would perfect the work which He had begun in His servant, and who gave the apostle confidence that He would do the same for us all. He is the God of all the things that happen to us. No wonder that the apostle keeps on exhorting us to rejoice.
