Floyd Rogers

The Old Testament tells us how God provided food for His children and the New Testament tells us not to be anxious for food. So why do some Christians starve? The fact that Christians can starve to death could appear to be in conflict with the idea of God providing all our needs.  Do these ideas conflict, or are we overlooking something?

I think it’s easy for non-believers to assume the existence of starving Christians is proof that God fails to provide if they assume that death is the end-game. But if the Bible’s message is true, then death certainly is not the end.  When you consider how long eternity is, I would say death is only the beginning.  When I consider how brief our lifespan is compared to deep time, our suffering here is momentary.  But why does God provide food for some, but not all? The answer seems to lie within the difference between needs and wants.

I believe God’s children in the Old Testament were given food because they needed it to fulfill His purpose for them. But the Book of Luke tells us about the beggar who died in poverty even though he was in God’s will.  It’s no small thing that Luke records that when the beggar died he was carried away by angels to Abraham’s bosom.  His suffering, by the way, was the result of a perfect creation that had become imperfect as a result of sin. I know of no scripture that tells us we will never go hungry, or that we will not starve. The pain and suffering we endure is caused by sin.  It’s not caused by God. It’s not only the result of our sin, but by all sin which caused God’s creation to become corrupt.  We have an appointed time to leave all of this and be with Him.  We have no need to be anxious that we won’t have what we need before that time. God is in control. When a Christian dies, even from things like starvation that exists because of sin, they go to be with our Lord. We do not need to live beyond our appointed time to die, nor should we want to. This world has nothing to offer compared to eternity with God.

I’m certainly open to consider any scripture you feel conflicts with what I’ve written above.  Please leave comments below if you additional scriptural evidence about God supplying our needs.