Salvation on Empty Stomachs, by Casey Ferguson

Over the past few weeks it seems I’ve been repeatedly placed in a position in which I have to trust in God to meet my needs. Don’t get me wrong here, I am dependent on God always, for every breath I take in. But sometimes I don’t notice it in the same way.

I am always in position to trust in God to place food on my table, but if my refrigerator is stocked completely full, my trust in him to provide doesn’t cost me so much. Sure, I’m still relying on God to feed me, but because he provided somewhat preemptively, before I felt the need, his provision is not so exciting, and I may overlook it to a degree.

It becomes more difficult to trust in God when the need comes before the provision.

I think of the action movies in which there is a close call of danger. The hero jumps out of the window just as the building explodes, the blast never fully enveloping him. Close calls are exciting in the movies. I can’t imagine anyone sitting through a movie in which the bomb goes off only after every last person and their cat has been evacuated and moved to a completely safe location.

At the same time, in my own life I’d prefer it that way. Problems are much easier to deal with when you have every resource you need to deal with them. They cease to be problems. And even though I appreciate God a little more through his dramatic rescues, because they’re easier to pinpoint and recognize for what they are, if given my choice each time I’d be sitting pretty with a fridge full of food every time hunger struck if I had it my way.

It’s interesting, no? God often opts to love us in a way that gets our attention? Salvation comes to us on the cross only when we’re most desperate for it. In the Old Testament salvation from the snake bite in the wilderness was achieved by looking up to the brass snake while the looker was suffering most greatly. In the New Testament we were granted freedom from sin, but in the same way we’re less likely to pray for food when our stomachs are full, the only way we’ll ever be saved is by looking to Christ when we’re most aware of our own sin and depravation.