The Dime that Saved the Day

READ: PSALM 145:8-16; MATTHEW 6:25-33; PHILIPPIANS 4:4-20

One year as summer approached, I needed to buy some shorts. With my budget in mind, I browsed at a second-hand shop and found two pairs in the right size. Including a discount, I could pay for the clothes using a gift card I’d received. It would cover the entire cost…except for eleven cents. But I only had one penny in my wallet.

So, what did I do? Did I leave the store empty-handed? Nope. Near the cash register, I noticed lots of loose change in a “leave a penny, take a penny” bucket. Right on top of the pile of coins, I found a dime and then finished paying for the clothes I’d picked out. Even before I needed to use that dime, it was there. Some generous stranger had dropped it in the coin container before I arrived at the shop, not realizing how helpful it would be at just the right time.

The kind person who tossed the dime into the canister for another shopper didn’t know I would be the one to need those few cents, but God, the all-knowing Lord, always knows what we need. Before we ask, before we even recognize our own needs, He is working to provide for us.

And He has already provided for the greatest need any of us have: to be rescued from sin and death. Because Jesus came, we can have a relationship with God through trusting in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. Then, not only do we have the sure hope of being raised from the dead to live with Him forever, but we can also approach God anytime to ask for His help and provision—just as a trusting child approaches a caring father. We can lean on God for all we need because He loves us. What an amazing invitation to come to the Father who knows all our needs and cares about each one. • Allison Wilson Lee

• One of the primary ways God provides for His people, is through His people! Can you think of a time someone helped meet your tangible needs? What was it like?

• God cares about all our needs, but He doesn’t promise we’ll never experience hardship. Jesus said we will have trouble, but He also promised to be with us through it all, and to return one day and make all things new; then lack will be replaced with abundance (John 16:33; Matthew 28:20; Revelation 21:1-5). As we wait for this day, He comforts us with His presence and strengthens us to endure in times of plenty and times of lack. How could these promises give us hope?

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:12-13 (NIV)