you know ive heard the saying that where God guides God provides.

however, im not so sure that is entirely true.

i mean i think He will sometimes. but sometimes he doesnt. though i think he will always provide spiritual strength but not always natural.

for instance look at david brainerd he died at a young age while he was serving God. or i bet there are missionaries who died because they didnt have money and food. i bet sometimes they didnt get ravens just like brainerd didnt get health.

some will say if you seek the kingdom then everything will be added to you. and i think that is true to a point but i think sometimes God chooses not to do that.

or they will say God is able to supply your need

2Co 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

but i think the key word here is able. it says He is able to do it not that He will.

or the verse i have never seen the righteous begging bread. and that also i am not sure is always true. i mean arent there righteous people in haiti begging bread right now? it may be true but not always sometimes God chooses to let someone lack.

i dont know am i wrong here?

i think sometime we just have to serve God and not care what happens and have no promise that God will care for us. we may go to a dark country and die of a disease in a week. sometimes God gives us prophetic leading but sometimes he doesnt.

there are times when God will heal those who believe and even if theyre bit by a serpent live but not always.

some people wont go out to serve God until they have a word from God. some people falsely believe that if they go out God will take care of them. sometimes God might not even greatly use you before you die. i think with most christians he only uses them for some small things. i mean many are used for great things but many also are just used for small things and then die.

this is one reason i do not want to have children. because if i want to serve the Lord and have children then that will be a problem. because how can i go and serve God knowing that i am in danger and also actively putting my children in danger if at the least losing me. i cant have children and put them in danger. i can do it to myself but not others. if i had a word from God to have children and that He would care for them or that He might not but still wants me to have them for His glory i would. and id have to have a word to go out into ministry. but if its just myself then i can put myself in danger without putting others in danger. it is better not to have children if you dont know whether they will be saved or whether God will protect them.

i dont know am i wrong does anyone have any thoughts?

i just think some ministers go out thinking sure they might get martyred. but they think God is going to greatly use me and provide for me and do wonderful things. and sometimes he doesnt and a person can go somewhere and just not be used very much and get cancer or something and then die.

anon, as I read your post, I can easily identify with your questions, they are the sort that trouble most at some point in their lives.

Have you ever studied the book of Job? Bro. Job had to deal with a lot of questions just like yours. He had several friends who offered their 'solutions' but in the end God dismissed them by telling them they need to apologize...read it and while studying it, place yourself in Job's shoes which may be hard to do since one tends to be of the mentality of his friends'.

I have learned - and am still learning - to trust the LORD, knowing full well that all things are in his control. I may not like what He allows but the unpleasant things he allows are a form of testing for me, sometimes a chastisement, as well. Remember what the Word says about it? Hebrews 12: 5-12. You don’t want to be a bastard, do you?

Or consider 2 Timothy 1:7. We cannot allow fear to be the guiding point in decision-making.

I understand your fear about having children. To marry but not be willing to have children is contradictory to the purpose of marriage, hints of distrust at its worse. As a parent who has two children who strayed, I can promise you one thing - we have learned a lot about the nature of God by enduring this anguish: we understand much better His anger, his judgment, his mercy, all fueled by his love. (Judgement appears on the flip side of the coin with mercy.) Without this experience we could not have understood it in the depth that we have.

Did you ever check out Habakkuk 3:17-19? I think Bro. Habakkuk dealt with this issue beautifully. And we do well to learn from his example.

Yet, in all of it, God is interested and is still looking on, observing your response. We are to be a testament of His goodness, his mercy, his grace to the ungodly society around us. Nice words, I know. And difficult at times, I know. Just do not allow the trials of life turn you into an agnostic. It happens...

My testimony - hope it helps.

Blessings,
ginnyrose

_________________
Sandra Miller

A wise preacher once said "I don't see any maybes
in the promises of GOD; but there are some ifs!!"
GOD always honors His Word and keeps His promises.
GOD does His part; after the if there is our part.
There is something we must do to complete our
part and the promise is fulfilled.
Christ has a Body. We are to be His ears, His eyes,
His hands, His feet. If the Body gives, helps, and
shares many needs will be met and supplied!!

_________________
Martin G. Smith

Sometime we don't see the provision that we are looking for because it is for a purpose larger than ourselves. These men and women in Hebrews appeared to be lacking the provision, but through their trial of faith God was working something greater.

Hebrews 11:33-40 (KJV)
33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

At they same time we must remember that the Word of God says that we can't see the whole picture.

1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV)
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

By God withholding some earthly provision it may do a work in us that will provide a greater benefit in eternity. No matter what we face on this earth, the award that is waiting for us in eternity will outweigh it all!!!!

Romans 8:17-18 (KJV)
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

well you know the thing with Job is that a lot of bad things happened to them and then he got them back double fold. we in this life unlike Job will not always get them back and yet many will teach them. we often will not get them back til the next life.

i know there are ifs in the promises of God and one of those ifs are not just based on us but on the will of God. if God wills. i just also dont see any promises that God has a wonderful plan for your life. i mean a person can get saved and then die the next minute.

i knew of a young christian girl and she was killed by a drunk driver and she was only 17. but im sure her preacher was always telling her to keep on through trials because God had a wonderful plan for her life that though things were bad now that God was going to change things and use her greatly in life. but He didnt He didnt use her barely at all.

and there are small things there is a difference between converting india and passing out a tract. in one sense there isnt but in another there is.

i think there are one too many cliches that come forth from christians with quotes and even scriptures in a way at times.

i think that with children there is no promise. they may not get saved. they may not have provision and starve to death or some out with a disability or something. so it is an unknown. to have children and say well im going to trust God is like saying im going to buy a house and trust God but you might be making a bad investment. there is no promise that your investment will work out right and you might be enslaved to debt the rest of your life and not be able to be free to serve the Lord. the same goes with ministry you can go out sacrificially serving the Lord and think that you are on fire and walking by faith and then have a health problem and if you dont have insurance go into great debt fast. i think we do too many things presumptively and think we are walking by faith when really we are walking unfaithfully by not paying insurance and by presuming God will bless us and our children.