...According to His Riches...

"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19

This is one of the most beloved and claimed verses in Scripture... especially now with the current economic state...

A key word in this verse to notice is "according" to his riches in glory. This speaks of being in accordance with, or in proportion to, his riches in glory. This is important because God's riches are infinite. Our riches have limitations. We can only give away or provide so much and the resources run out. But God's riches are immeasurable, so he has a never ending ability to supply for all of our needs.

I was reminded of this while reading Mark 8 this morning. In that passage Jesus has been preaching to a large crowd of 4000+ and he does not want to send them away hungry. He turns to his disciples who say, “How can one feed these people with bread here in this desolate place?”

Jesus then works a miracle, feeding the crowd from seven loaves of bread.

The odd thing is, this was AFTER Jesus had fed the 5000+ with five loaves and two fish. (See Mark 8:14-21). Why didn't the disciples simply say, "Lord, we know you can feed them with next to nothing..."?

I think it was because they figured the resource had been "used up" and now something different would have to happen. They did not yet understand that God could supply "according to" his riches and there would be no limit.

We can look back and see how God has supplied in the past, but then doubt that he is able to do it again in the future. We need to cling to the "according to" part of this verse and never forget that God has a never ending ability to provide for all of our needs! (Of course, another key word in there is "need", but that's another story...)