This week the Federal Reserve held its benchmark rate high for the second meeting running — 3.5% to 3.75% — and the members who broke ranks wanted to raise rates, not cut them, with markets now betting on a possible hike by September. Underneath the headline, the inflation that actually squeezes a business — shelter, services, insurance — is stuck near 2.6% and barely moving. For an owner, the message is plain: money stays expensive, and there’s no relief priced into the forecast.
So let me ask you something that has nothing to do with the forecast.
If you’re sowing and reaping in the fields God has actually called you to, then your harvest is not governed by the world’s economy. It’s governed by the Kingdom’s. And those are two very different economies.
Here’s what I have to keep reminding myself. God is not short on resources. He is not broke. This is the God who turned five loaves and two fish into a meal for five thousand with baskets left over. Who told Peter to go pull a coin out of a fish’s mouth to pay the tax. Who filled the nets to breaking on one side of the boat when the other side had come up empty all night. Resources have never once been the deciding factor with Him. He owns all of it — an unlimited supply.
Sure, it may not have hit my bank account yet. But I have access to the One who owns the account.
So the real question underneath every negative report is not “what are the numbers doing.” It’s this: do we actually believe that with rising rates, with sticky inflation, with the headlines piling up, God is still on the throne? That He is still in control? That He is still in the business of making a way where there seems to be no way?
Because if we are following Him — if we are sowing and stewarding and watering all the fields He has told us to work — then we can be sure our God will supply all our needs according to His riches in glory (Philippians 4:19).
Now hear the honest part, because I won’t sell you something cheaper than the truth. That does not mean everything works out the way you wanted. It doesn’t mean the season ends when you’d like, or the provision shows up in the shape you’d drawn up in your head. But don’t miss this: if it’s for His glory, then it is for your good. Those two are never at odds. The only thing that doesn’t always come along is your preference — and a faith that can’t tell the difference won’t hold up under a long squeeze (Romans 8:28).
If you’re worn out from white-knuckling the forecast, let me hand you the thing that actually steadies me. My steadiness has never come from the numbers cooperating. It comes from whose field I’m working, and whose economy my harvest is on.
He isn’t broke. Hang on.
In Christ,
Chad