The challenge of trusting God as provider

David Cameron has announced that there will be massive cuts in public spending if the Conservatives come to power. Now I find myself with a conflict of interests. I definitely want Labour to be defeated. Why would I want the people largely responsible for making the recession deeper and longer than it needed to be to continue in Government? Since they got us into the mess we can hardly trust them to get us out of it! However, on the other hand, my current client is in the public sector and my contract will probably be one the first things to go in the cuts. There are very few opportunities around in my line of work a tthe moment so I face the prospect of having no income. I do find myself worrying about this from time-to-time and have to keep reminding myself that God will provide what we need and that the things I worry about losing are things we don't really need.

Of course I have faced times like this before in the 24 years I've been a freelancer so I found it strange that I seemed to be worrying more this time. I think that's partly because I know this recession is worse than anything I've seen before but also I realised something else. In the past I've faced periods when there has been no work with confidence and said to people "God will provide" - and He did. But I realised a large part of that was the natural bravado of a young man, it wasn't really trust in God. The older we get the less we have that natural optimism and confidence. So, it seems I have more to learn about trusting Him than I thought. But one thing I am confident of is this: because I know that He loved me enough to die for me I know that He will provide all we need. In the mean time I need to get better at distinguishing between what is a luxury, desire or comfort and what is a true need.