He Sees, He Knows, He Cares

This past January while Zach and I were visiting Wheaton, we spent an evening with our friends and mentors, the Schuchardts (a Wheaton professor and his wife who we had become close to while at Wheaton). Among other things, we talked about having faith with tight finances, and Rachel told me she often clung to the mantra, "He sees; He knows; He cares." In other words, no matter how dire your circumstances may get (financial or otherwise), God is not surprised and never forgets about you. As we have lived very much by faith financially since being in Israel, I have often brought that phrase to mind.

Anyway, over the last few weeks I (in particular) have been stressed about our finances quite a bit. God has certainly provided for us in amazing ways to be here, but we still have some financial concerns and will need a little more income to be able to stay here long term. People respond differently to times of stress, but my reaction is to get incredibly proactive and just search frantically for jobs or money-making opportunities. While it's not necessarily bad to take some action like this, I recognize that I've tried to take the entire burden on my shoulders these last few weeks and have not hardly trusted the Lord at all for His provision. I certainly haven't rested and trusted that He sees, He knows, and He cares.

So last Thursday, God finally got my attention in a significant way through an email from our pastor's wife in Oregon. She told me to be careful not to suffer from "Sarah syndrome." Remember Sarah and Abraham? God promised that they would have a huge number of descendants even though they were both old and she was barren. After God promised this, though, a good 10 years went by and still no kids. So Sarah, presumably thinking she was just helping God accomplish His will, made Abraham and Hagar get together so they could at least have an heir (Ishmael). In His own timing, God was ultimately faithful to Sarah and gave her a son of her own (Isaac), but because Sarah tried to "rush" or "force" God's will, so to speak, she ended up having a bigger issue on her hands (the tension of Isaac and Ishmael).

I officially diagnosed myself with "Sarah syndrome" after going back to read this story, and the Lord very much convicted me of my lack of faith in His provision. (As a side note, I also love Psalm 46:10 in the NASV - "Cease striving and know that I am God.") So last Thursday I decided that for one week (minimum), I would do nothing proactive to try and make money for us. No looking for jobs online, no applying for scholarships, no seeking out part-time work here in Jerusalem. Instead, I would use that time to simply ask that the Lord would provide in His timing and in His owns ways -- outside of anything I could bring about with my own effort.

Fast-forward to this morning. After our church service, we were heading out when our pastor pulled us aside and said he wanted to ask us something. He started with, "So I have a job opportunity I want to run by you..." In short, he needs us over the summer to be in charge of running sound and getting the service set up while a few key people are out of town, and he offered to pay us generously for doing it. I almost could not stop smiling through the whole conversation not even because of the money, but because I was just watching the Lord answer my prayer as clear as day. He was basically saying, "You don't think I can provide for you without your help? Let me show you. I'll hand this nice job to you on a silver platter, and you didn't even have to lift a finger."

All of that to say, I see so clearly today that we serve a very personal, very active God who sees, who knows, and who cares. Praise the Lord for His provision and that He is still Jehovah Jireh, our provider.