S9.15 | Embracing God’s Provision: Lessons from Squirrels and Acorns
Hey friends! Welcome back to another episode of Affirming Truths with your host, Carla Arges. In today’s episode we dive into the powerful metaphor of acorns and how they exemplify God’s faithful provision.
Join Carla as she shares insights from her morning walk, nearly tripping over acorns, which sparked reflections on God's dependable care. Through scriptures like Matthew 6:26 and Philippians 4:6, Carla explores our inherent value in God's eyes and encourages us to trust in His provision, even in season of barrenness.
Learn how to be an active participant in your faith journey by gathering the resources God provides. Grab your coffee, find a cozy spot, and let’s get started!
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Key Takeaways
Trust in God’s Provision:
Reflecting on Matthew 6:26, Carla reminds us that just as God provides for the birds and squirrels, He will surely meet our needs because we are even more valuable to Him..
Acting on God's Blessings:
By cUsing the example of manna, Carla illustrates that recognizing and gathering God’s blessings requires action on our part, urging listeners not to miss out on God’s provision by expecting it to come in a specific way.
Combatting Anxiety:
Referencing Philippians 4:6, Carla guides us on replacing anxiety with prayer and thanksgiving, trusting in God’s ability to provide and care for us even in uncertain times.
Connect With Carla:
Foundations to Healing—-> https://www.carlaarges.com/renewing-hope
Inquire about 1:1 coaching ---> carlaagreswellness@gmail.com
Come hangout on IG with me @carlaarges
Check out the blog
Resources:
5 Steps to Building Resiliency
Affirming Truths Facebook Community
5 Tips for Overcoming a Negative Body Image
Who You Say I Am Biblical Affirmation Cards
TRANSCRIPT
Carla Arges [00:00:08]:
Hey friends, welcome to affirming truths. I'm your friend and host, Carla Arges. This show is a safe place to share our struggles, grow in faith, and root our identity in Christ. My hope is that you will leave each episode feeling encouraged in your journey. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode and it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review. I am so glad you're here. Let's get started. Hey friends, welcome to this episode of affirming Truth.
Carla Arges [00:00:37]:
I am so glad you're here. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I take a daily walk. My goal is to hit 10,000 steps a day. It doesn't always happen, but I'm pretty committed to this habit and the routine. I do it with a weighted vest because if you are in perimenopause, you want to protect your bone density and that helps. But anyways, I'm not here to talk about that, but I'm just setting the scene because I was on my walk this morning, actually, and I noticed that there was acorns everywhere. I'm stepping, I'm tripping over all these acorns, and I see squirrels hustling about getting the acorns, running around, doing their thing, and it just brought to me such a countenance of hope and thankfulness in our heavenly Father. Those acorns, which at first were annoying to step on and almost turn my ankle on the Holy Spirit, opened my eyes to the goodness of God in that situation, and it brought me to Matthew 626, where it says, look at the birds of the air.
Carla Arges [00:01:57]:
For they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? You see, the squirrels know that the acorns are going to fall. God designed them with a knowing, knowing that winter is coming. And they trust that each season their need will be met. The acorns will come. They'll be able to store them away for winter and in a season of barrenness, in a lot of cases, God is providing and taking care of their needs. They don't worry.
Carla Arges [00:02:41]:
They don't stress. They are confident. Maybe not as psychologically aware of their confidence as we are, but they don't worry. They know God is going to provide. And I think that that is such an important takeaway for us because there are so many of us either approaching a winter season or in a winter season right now, and it's hard and it looks barren and we can't see where provision is coming. But I want to encourage you today that you are more valuable than those squirrels I saw. And God's going to provide you more than acorns. In Philippians four six, it says, do not be anxious about anything.
Carla Arges [00:03:34]:
But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with Thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Do not be anxious about anything. The world wants us to be anxious. The world profits off of our anxiety. Right? How many things have we bought as a promise to a solution? Right? How many worries do we have? I know for my american friends right now, it might feel especially worrisome as you head into a contentious election. The world wants us to worry. The enemy wants us to worry. Because guess where our focus is when we're worrying? It's not on God.
Carla Arges [00:04:23]:
It's not on our calling. It's not on our purpose. We're focused on the wrong things. When we look at our situation and our circumstance, and we just look at it with lack, we are setting ourselves up for disillusionment, discouragement, staying stuck. But God says, don't be anxious. Just as the heavenly Father feeds the sparrows, are you not more valuable than they? And maybe that's where the problem lies. We don't see ourselves as valuable. Maybe your past trauma, maybe your mental illness, maybe your past in general has made you believe you're not that valuable.
Carla Arges [00:05:12]:
And so it's hard to trust that God will provide no matter what. It's hard to receive that unconditional love because you've never experienced it before. God is not like anything you've experienced before. He's not like our earthly fathers. He is the perfection of what fatherhood should be. He's everything we need, and he loves us. He created us innately with value. It says in the psalms that he foreknew us.
Carla Arges [00:05:50]:
He knit us together in the womb. He foreknew us even before the foundations of the earth. You were planned on purpose, with purpose, with so much love, love that sent jesus to the cross to restore relationship with you. He loves you. You are valuable to him, and he is concerned with your needs. He is concerned about your spirit and your soul and transforming you to be more like Jesus. He made you to be an overcomer in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit. How incredible is that? How incredible is that? In romans 623, it says, for the wages of sin is death.
Carla Arges [00:06:50]:
We have all sinned. Our future should be death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. If the squirrels don't worry, why should we? I mean, really, look at the evidence of God's faithfulness, not just in the Bible. I know it can be easy to be like, yeah, that was then, this is now. Look at the faithfulness in his life. He has carried you this far. You may have faced trials.
Carla Arges [00:07:30]:
The christian life does not shelter us from trials. In fact, in a lot of cases it gives us more trials as the enemy tries to throw us off our game. But we are promised to be victors in it because Christ got the victory at Calvary. You are an overcomer. You don't have to worry about where your provision is coming. You can have faith that it's coming in your season right now. What do you need? Do you need comfort? The Holy Spirit offers that to you. Do you need peace? You can come rest in the arms of Jesus.
Carla Arges [00:08:16]:
Do you need more tangible provision? Do you not know how you're going to pay the grocery bill next week? Lift it up to the Lord with petition, with thanksgiving. Present your request to him and do not be anxious. The Lord will provide. What do you need right now? Do you need a hope? Jesus has that for you. Do you need help navigating your trauma and your mental illness? I'm a resource for you in so many different ways. Foundations to healing is an incredible place to start at an incredible price point. There's things out there that God is delivering to you. But I want you to notice something about the squirrels and the acorns.
Carla Arges [00:09:18]:
The acorns fall as provision. The squirrels still have to gather them and bury them and put them in their nests. The squirrels still have work in that provision. And sometimes for us, when we don't see the provision the way we expect it or want it, we don't grab hold of what God is providing and partner with him and do our work, our part of it. You're struggling right now. God is maybe providing you a therapist, maybe me as your coach. Are you taking advantage of that or are you waiting for God to show up in a way that is more palatable to you? What are you struggling with? Where do you need God to show up? And what resource has he laid down in front of you like the acorns? What manna is in front of you, right? God provided the manna in the same way he's providing the acorns. It came down, but the Israelites each morning had to get up and gather it.
Carla Arges [00:10:39]:
If they didn't gather it, they weren't going to eat. Now they could sit in their tent and say, lord, why aren't you providing me the already made bread, the already made cakes? God, you didn't provide the bread. Therefore you're not meeting my needs and letting me starve. Meanwhile, there's manna all outside your tent. Are you staying in your tent expecting the full loaf of bread to show up? Or are you stepping outside and seeing how God has put everything that you need, all the ingredients that you need at your fingertips? But now you've got to do the work and you've got to appropriate it in your life. This is often where people miss the blessing of God because they expect the blessing of God to show up in such a supernatural lightning bolt way. And don't get me wrong, man is showing up with the do is supernatural, but they don't expect that they have a part to play. They don't expect that they have work to do.
Carla Arges [00:11:50]:
You have work to do. That restoration you want in your life. You have work to do with the resources God is laying in front of you, that healing you want in your life for your trauma, for your mental illness. You have work to do. God is giving you the resources. He's giving you the word. He's giving you knowledge about neuroscience. He is giving you more knowledge about somatics.
Carla Arges [00:12:18]:
He's gifting you this podcast. God is showing up. God is giving you the manna. You've got to collect it and make the bread. But you do not have to worry about the provision. God will provide. God will provide just like he provides a for the sparrow. But you still have to work.
Carla Arges [00:12:52]:
I want to leave you with this affirming truth. I will trust God for provision of all I need in every season. And I want us to look at Isaiah 43, it said, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They were sore on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Listen, your hope is in the Lord, and as you hope in the Lord, he will. He will provide what you need.
Carla Arges [00:13:25]:
But look at here, it says, they will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. They're not staying still. Hope is active. Faith is active. Redemption. Restoration is active. Forgiveness is active.
Carla Arges [00:13:45]:
Healing is active. Gathering. The manna is active. God will provide. But you have to be active participant in what that looks like. So won't you do that today? Thanks for joining me today. I hope we're already friends on social media, but if we're not, come find me on Instagram, arlaarges or at affirming truth. Can't wait to see you back here next week.
Carla Arges [00:14:22]:
Bye, friends.