As a christian, one of the most frequent questions and criticisms from both fellow christians and non-christians alike is "Why would a christian prep when God promises to provide all your needs?' At some time every Christian faces reconciling the need to prepare with faith in God's promises. Yes, He does say that He looks out and provides for even the smallest creatures but He has never come down and built a nest for a bird then placed it in there and provided for its every need. The bird is given all it needs BUT it has to gather the twigs and string. It has to put them all together. It has to line the nest with soft feathers or other materials it finds. It also has to forage for food while its doing all this work. Then the birds have to lay the eggs and sit on them until they hatch. For some birds, the male has to guard the nest while the mother flys down to eat. They have to be diligent and when those tiny birds hatch they have to be fed massive amounts of food which the parents find and bring back to them. Eventually, those fledgelings leave the nest and go on to provide for themselves and their own family. Notice at no time did the birds sit and wait on God to provide because the bird knew instinctively that He HAD provided but the actual work of gathering was for the bird to do.
The Bible also never says that we will never have tribulations and trials. It never says that we can stand in the middle of the road with oncoming traffic and He will lift us out of danger before we are hit by a car. What it does say in Matthew 4:7 is
"Jesus answered him, It is written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test."
In other words, don't expect God to save you from your own Deliberate folly when He has given you all the information and resources to know that you shouldn't do things like stand in traffic. As a more prepping related example, consider the happy couple. The young man leaves for work and works all day and when he gets home he is expecting a nice hot meal on the table and a clean house. When he comes in the door the house is a disaster and the young woman is sitting at the kitchen table. The husband asks what is wrong. Why are there no plates and glasses on the table? Where is supper? Why is nothing prepared? Why is everything a mess? Well the young woman was waiting on God to provide of course. He should have cleaned the house, done the shopping, prepared the food and set the table right? Of course not, God provides for us when we are faithful but we must also put action behind that provision or we would starve. We have to GO to the store to buy the food to eat. We read in 1 Timothy 5:4-8 "But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family......If anyone does not provide for his relative and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse then an unbeliever" I believe the verse in 12:22 where Jesus speaks about God feeding the ravens and then talks of the lillies of the field He is warning about lack of faith and WORRYING. We should do our best, have Faith in Him and He will provide what we need BEYOND that because we are showing our faith in following his directions but worrying about it is bad. We should prepare joyfully if we are called to prep.
So where exactly does the Bible encourage us to store up food and other supplies for the future? One of the most obvious examples is when he instructed Noah to build an ark. He didn't build the ark for Noah. He didn't even fill it with food or animals. He told Noah to build the ark and fill it with the food needed. Genesis 6:14 says: "So make YOURSELF an ark....." Genesis 6:19 says; "YOU are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures....." Verse 21 says "YOU are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them." After everything was completed verse 7:16 says "then the Lord shut him in." Its clearly an instance where Noah was faithful to Gods will and yet God still expected Noah to put his faith to practice and also to store up what would be needed for a future disaster which the Lord plainly warned him about. Had Noah believed with all his heart that the Lord would provide an ark and all the supplies on the last day even after the Lord instructed him otherwise I doubt that Noah would have survived the flood. Somehow I don't believe that God would have lifted him to safety either.
Another example of God providing the instructions and the time needed to plan for a disaster is given to us through Pharoah and Joseph. In Genesis 41; 35-36 it says " They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharoah, to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve for the country to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine." God gave not one but two dreams to Pharoah about the coming disaster. He sent Joseph to interpret the dreams. He gave Pharoah enough time to store up food during the good years and sustained the people through the bad years when they would have surely starved. How much easier it would have been for God to send down manna for the people, right? wrong. God wants His faithful to trust in Him but also to provide to the best of our ability.
So the Bible does show examples of God telling his people to store up and prepare for the future. The question NOW before us becomes IS God giving us instructions now to prepare for OUR future. Each person has to decide that for themselves. He certainly has given us plenty of warnings against NOT providing for ourselves (read Proverbs 6:6-8, Proverbs 20:4, Proverbs 20:13, Proverbs 21:20, Proverbs 28:19) He has given us examples of people who He instructed to do the same thing with Noah and Pharoah. He gives us the consequences of not providing and having faith with the Virgins and the lamp oil and the Bridegroom and the banquet. He also has given us a mind to understand what is going on in the world around us. He has given us the ability plus time to prepare for the future. He gave us signs of the last days in Matthew 24. He gave us discernment. He has even given some people around us who can confirm what we already feel called to do.
Whether you believe that this is the time of our Lord to return or rather another Great Depression, whether you believe you should prepare for physical disasters or TEOTWAWKI, whether you believe in the rapture or not, if you feel that God is calling you to prepare then there is certainly confirmation in the Bible to support that belief. He absolutely wants our faith in Him but sometimes He wants us to go with only our Faith and sometimes he wants us to provide for ourselves (see Luke 22: 35-36). Sometimes your faith and supplies will be for you and yours and sometimes it will be for others (Matthew 25: 35-36) and always it should be for the glory of God so that others may be saved.
Whatever you feel called to do or why you feel called to do it, keep the Faith that God will provide and He surely smiles on it if its done through Faith and to the best if your ability. Remember the loaves and fishes. He can multiply your offering to serve its purpose if its all that is available and you have done the best with the talents He gave you.
Southern Wood Elf