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

I imagine there are many within our community who are beginning to sweat. The government shutdown has entered its twenty-fifth day with no end in sight. For large swaths of the federal government, “essential” workers labor without pay while those deemed “non-essential” are furloughed. Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, I think that we can all agree that the people we send to Washington to do the work of the American people are letting us down. Maybe that explains Congress’ 18% approval rating.

While I am concerned for the 800,000 federal workers affected by this stalemate, my heart particularly hurts for the private sector workers who support government operations. Congress voted overwhelmingly to backpay all federal workers, both furloughed and those working without pay… so while certainly a cash flow hardship on the front end, in the end they will be compensated. Private sector contractors, however, who directly support the government and are laid off as a result of the shutdown are out of luck.

I am so glad that, as Christians, our ultimate trust is not in the government or our jobs, but in a faithful God who never changes (James 1:17) because He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Our God is merciful and gracious and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Psalm 86:15). In fact, His love extends to the heavens and His faithfulness to the clouds (Psalm 36:5). This heavenly Father is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (1 John 1:9) and when we have no faith, He remains faithful (2 Timothy 2:13). In fact, whatever you face today or this week, God has already provided mercy, every morning, right on time, because His faithfulness is great (Lamentations 3:23). When in battle His faithfulness is our shelter and shield, because He has promised to establish us and guard us against the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3). If you ask me, it sounds like God has promised to “supply every need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). Now THAT is faithful.

This month GLCC has to trust in God’s faithful supply as well. We were not able to gather as a church this past Sunday so we took in $.00 through the offering box. For a church that needs $25,300 weekly to meet all of our ministry needs, this is tough. Church financial specialists say that if you lose a week of giving you will never get it back. People tend to just move on… as a church we’ve got to lean into God’s faithfulness!Trusting God starts when we acknowledge that everything we have already belongs to God, in fact we belong to God too! (1 Corinthians 6:19) So, take courage. We can trust him to supply our needs. God is faithful. We need to rest in that.