My God, My Protector, My Provider

By Joy
As I have spent time thanking God for all He has done in my life, two themes are prominent: His protection and provision. I am just realizing how much influence He has had in my life without me even knowing it. He has protected me from physical and emotional harm as well as major debt.

He has provided me with one of the strongest women in the Lord I know, my mother. I watched her faith never waiver every day, and her life has been anything but ideal. She married my father at 19 years old. He was the only man she had ever been with and loved. She did not know at the time that he had drug and anger problems that were generational in his family. Through the 11 years of their marriage, my father was overtaken by these demons, and my family was the target of his anger and perversions. My oldest sister, especially, received the brunt of his negative attention. Being a baby when things got bad enough for my mom to leave with nothing, my sister watched me like a hawk to make sure my father didn’t do anything to me. But with all that my father did to the family, God held us together. Because of God’s protection, and my mom’s complete surrender to Him, He provided us with places to live and families that basically adopted our family and helped take care of us.

Growing up with my father popping in and out of my life, I never felt like I needed or missed my dad. God provided spiritual fathers for me my whole life. Matt even asked one of them for his permission to marry me. This man was my volleyball coach and youth pastor. His wife was/is my spiritual mentor and high school small group leader. They have 3 boys, and I was their adopted daughter. I was able to see what a real man of God looks and acts like. I learned the qualities of a powerful husband, wife and marriage from them. God provided me with an earthly example of His divine design.

3 months after Matt and I married, I was cooking breakfast one fine Saturday morning, trying to be a good wife. Using our new knife set from a wedding gift, I cut my thumb so badly that I severed my tendon and nerve. This was the beginning of my cooking with a knife accidents (I’m clumsy). I had job as a physical therapy aide at the time (another provision from God as I was just out of high school), and it came with insurance. My insurance took effect one week before the accident. And because I worked for a hospital, my $11,000 surgery bill turned out to be only $500 out of pocket. We were young and newlyweds with big dreams of going to college together. God’s provision and protection is so evident in this story.

Well, I think this might be part one of my protection and provision story. There are just too many stories to share, and each of them was at very pivotal moments in my life. Bottom line, THANK YOU LORD! You are my protector and provider, and I put my trust in You!