Names of God – Jehovah Jireh

Names of God – Jehovah Jireh

One of the songs we sang a lot back in the 90s was one that said, “Jehovah Jireh, my provider your grace is sufficient for me.” Jehovah Jireh, The Lord is My Provider.

Remember the story of Abraham, when he had to sacrifice his only son Isaac to God? At the last minute, God provided a ram as a replacement sacrifice. Abraham named that place Jehovah Jireh, Genesis 22:14 “Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

But, here’s the thing, God’s provision didn’t stop with Abraham. Paul told the church at Philippi in Philippians 4:19, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” God will provide. Throughout scripture, we see example after example of God providing for His people. Whether He was providing Angels to fight a battle for them or making water come out of a rock, or making manna fall from heaven, or even having ravens bring them food, He always provides. Deuteronomy 31:6, “So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Did you get that? God will personally go ahead of you…personally! Think about what that is saying. The God of the universe, not the lowly king or president of some country, but the God of the universe will prepare the way for me…wow! Also in Exodus 14:14, “The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Stop and think about this for a minute. The God of the universe will personally go ahead of you, He will fight for you. It doesn’t say He will send an angel to go ahead of you or fight for you, it says He will do it Himself. That’s huge! It goes on to say, “He will never fail you nor abandon you.” He provides for us in any situation. He will never fail us and He will never abandon us. Keep calm and trust God!

When we look at Matthew chapter 6, starting at verse 25 and going through the rest of the chapter, we see instructions on how to handle anxiety. We first have to answer the question, is worry a sin? In this passage, it says that it is a sign that you don’t have enough faith in God. It also says in verse 32 that these are the things that “dominate the thoughts of unbelievers.” So yes, it is a sin not to trust God. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, how can we not worry? This passage compares us to birds and wildflowers. Christ is telling us that God takes such good care of these insignificant things, there is no doubt that He will take care of us. He provides for birds, He provides for wildflowers. He will provide for us…but there are conditions. It says, at the end of verse 32 that He already knows what we need, but remember, He tells us in James 2:14-26 that faith without works is dead. So, we must have faith. Faith doesn’t mean that we just sit back and wait for God, we must put our faith to work. The next verse says, Matthew 6:33, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” God will not take second, or third, or fourth place in our lives. He is a jealous God, as we will see in a future post. We must seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and we must live righteously, that’s the works that are behind our faith. In Micah 6:8 we read, “No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”  A lot of people treat salvation as a “get out of Hell free card”, but the Bible makes it clear, repeatedly, that salvation is a changed life. God expects his people to do what is right, He expects us to love mercy, He expects us to be an example to the world, Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Then, and only then, will He provide for us.

We are not saved by our good works, the Bible makes that very clear as well, Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” But, we are required to do good works so that God will be glorified. Glorifying God is our full-time job as Christ followers, Isaiah 43:7 says, “Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.’” You see, that is why we were created, for His glory. Besides, if we truly love someone, we want to please them. So, if you truly love God, you will want to spend time with Him and others who love Him, and you will want to please Him, that’s just human nature. If you are in love, whether with your spouse or someone you are dating, you want to be around them, and with people who like them. You won’t want to spend time with people who don’t like the person you love. So, if you truly love God, you will desire to spent time with Him and His people.

So, glorify God, do justice, love mercy, seek God’s Kingdom above all else, and live righteously, and He will be your provider and you will have nothing to worry about. KEEP CALM AND TRUST GOD!