GPBC Blog

Over the last few years, I have been very aware of God’s provision in my life. I was brought up in the church, however over the past fifteen years I have not been a regular attender.

My journey of spiritual renewal began when I turned my focus to Bible study. For 25 years I had listened daily to the Thru The Bible Radio Ministry broadcast. While interesting at first, it eventually became background noise, and it failed to help me to put down deep roots in my faith. This changed when I turned my focus more clearly on actively listening to the broadcast with pen in hand. The Holy Spirit used my redirected attention to prompt me to read the Bible in a year. I got a hold of one of the Daily Bread booklets and followed the reading program. The act of engaging in the Word of God daily did a reset on my life!

It was not long after doing this that God directed me to Greater Portland Bible Church. Fellowshipping with other believers weekly also proved to be a catalyst to a deeper relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I began to really notice how God was working in my life, providing all my needs, and giving meaning to every aspect of worship, work, and play.

I started to cast all my cares upon the Lord because He knows what we need and promised to provide for us. I needed a new place to live, and God provided! I needed a car after an accident, and God provided! In fact, God provides all our needs and there is nothing in our lives that He does not provide!

In the Bible, the idea of trees as provision starts in the very first chapter. After making humankind in His own image, God blessed them and said to them “Here! Throughout the whole earth I am giving you as food every seed-bearing plant and every tree with seed-bearing fruit. And to every wild animal, bird in the air and creature crawling on the earth, in which there is a living soul. I am giving as food every kind of green plant” Genesis 1:29-30. God also provides the Tree of Life in the center of the garden so that they would not die.

We see provision for the land and people of Israel under King Solomon described in 1Kings 4:25 as, “and Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree.”

God continues to provide for us. In Psalms 1:3, David writes that if we delight in the Law and meditate on it, we will be like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

If I am firmly planted in the word of God, I can see His provision for me daily. I find myself spontaneously giving thanks to God daily for every single thing in my life. Of course, God’s greatest provision for us is the salvation He provided through the sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus.

God IS our Tree of Life!