God Will Meet Your Needs (Day 9)

“She also rises while it is yet night, and provides food for her household.” 

Obviously, we’re talking about physical provision here. But it occurred to me as I was meditating on this passage last night—here is a woman who also gets up in the morning to get some food from the Word of God so that she will have spiritual food to provide for her family.

If you’re not getting spiritual food on a consistent, daily basis from the Word of God, then you will not have the resources, the ability, the insight, the wisdom, the strength, the desire, or the motivation to meet your family’s physical and temporal needs.

Now, verse 16 tells us, “She considers a field and buys it; from her profits she plants a vineyard.” There are a number of things that this verse makes clear to us. The first and most obvious is that she considers. She thinks before she spends. She’s not an impulsive spender.

She’s not one of these women who goes out and sees this great buy and then says, “Charge it.” She stops to think, “Is this something we need? Is this something that will benefit our family? Is this a purchase that my husband would feel good about?” Remember, her husband’s heart trusts in her. She’s not going to make decisions that run counter to his direction and his leadership for the family. “Is this something we can afford?” She thinks before she buys.

My dad used to tease my mother that she saved him thousands of dollars in sales. But just because something is on sale doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a good buy or that it’s something that is needed or something that it’s the right time or that the family can afford.

Keep in mind, this was probably not a ranch she was purchasing but a lot—a piece of property that would be used to generate profit or economic benefit for their family. The Amplified Translation says at this point, and I like it on this. Verse 16 says, “She considers a [new] field before she buys or accepts it, [expanding prudently and not courting neglect of her present duties by assuming other duties]; with her savings [of time and strength] she plants fruitful vines in her vineyard.”

So here is a woman who has good business instincts, a good business mind, and wise business dealings. She knows how to determine if something will be of value in meeting the needs of her family.

You are better off in your family having less—having not as many things; having one vehicle instead of two; having fewer things; waiting to get that nicer or larger home; being more cramped together for a period of time, and having peace in your home, love in your home, and oneness of spirit in your home—than spending money that your husband doesn’t make or forcing him to take another job or forcing yourself into the marketplace. Just so that you can support that spending habit—then having to live with the bills, the indebtedness, the pressure, the conflict, the arguments.

A wife has a huge responsibility here, to live within the resources that God provides through her husband.

Let me just ask you to skip down to verse 24, and I want to bring that verse up in this context: “She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies sashes for the merchants.” We see here a woman who saves so that she has enough left over to do two things.

One, and we’ll come to this in another session, she can be a giver. She’s able to minister to the poor. But she also makes enough beyond that that she can sell the surplus; sell those sashes, those garments to the merchants and can bring in some extra income for the family. 

She develops a skill that contributes to her family, and then she’s able to make that skill profitable beyond her home. Her goal is not to make money for personal fulfillment. It’s not so she can have her own private spending account. It’s always for the sake or the benefit of her family.

Keep in mind here that her goal is not to build a business. Her goal is to build a home, to build a family, to build her husband and her children, to build a family name, and to build the next generation. 

“The wise woman builds her home, but the foolish tears it down with her hands,” Proverbs 14 tells us (verse 1, paraphrase).

Jesus, *Sigh* I want to have these skills to bring in money. I feel like knitting is a good place to start. Help me get the hang of it and show me Jesus what You have in mind for me, show me Your will for my life and help me to walk by it.