To Encourage You

Psalm 145:16 “You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

There are many things that only God can do.  He alone controls the weather. He alone sustains the universe by His mighty power. The sun continues to shine, the moon continues to rotate around the earth, the plants continue to grow and produce oxygen, and our hearts continue to beat only because of the power of God. 

But then there are many things that the Lord has chosen to do through us.  One example is given in the verse above.  Here we are told that it is God who feeds every living thing.  That’s an awesome thought.  Think of the millions of creatures that live on the earth. They look to their Creator for their food.  Many of these creatures we never see. Some of them live high in the mountains, in deserts, or on the ocean floor in places we’ll never go. Yet God is there to sustain them.  But as we look around us and see people in need, how is it that God sustains them?  It is on this point that it’s good to remind ourselves that our Lord has said “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27).  Those eyes that see the needs around us, they are the eyes that Christ has given us.  And the hand that God opens to satisfy the desires of those in need, could it be that it is your hands and mine that are the means by which He often acts?  Well, that’s exactly what the Bible says.  As we obey the Word of God to feed the hungry, visit the sick, and give a cup of cold water to those who thirst, we are becoming the means whereby God so often does His work.  As we give thanks to the God Who all our lives has fulfilled  for us the proclamation from Psalm 145 above, we can be the means whereby others can give thanks for the provisions God has provided them through us. 

You see, God satisfies the desires of His people so that His people can be the means whereby He can satisfy the desires and needs of others.  When we receive comfort, we need to remember that God “comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians 1:4)  As God encourages us with His Word, we likewise are to “encourage one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:8).  As He has poured out His love on our lives, we are to pour out that love on one another” (1 John 4:19).  We are reminded that “You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God” (2 Corinthians 9:11-12). 

So, as we see the needs around us and as we pray for those in need, may God help us to always be ready to be a means whereby those prayers can be answered.  When we see someone in need, and when we have the means by which to meet that need, it is then, at that moment, that we are being given the privilege as a member of the body of Christ to act as one of those members. 

Yes, we can be so thankful that our great God “opens His hand to satisfy the desire of every living thing,” but may He help us to remember that the hands He wants to open may be the very hands He has given to us.