Everything Brought Near

That is the secret of a happy Christian life—to draw near to Him and walk with Him.
“There will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty" (v. 11). I want to be very plain in commenting on this verse. No matter how much you accumulate of this world's goods or how much you provide for your children, you are going to come to poverty unless the Lord nourishes you and your children. But if you walk in dependence on the Lord and near Him, and if you occupy yourself with His position as the Lord of all, realizing that He has purposed to sustain you through the years of famine, you will never come to poverty no matter how little you have. Closeness to Christ is our insurance against spiritual poverty.
Joseph says, "There will I nourish thee," and the Lord will nourish us. We want His nourishment for our souls, for our families and households. God delights to bless households, but this requires us to be near to the Lord Jesus. We must be occupied with His place as Lord of all. All is in His hands, and if we are walking in communion with Him and in subjection to Him, what can we fear for our households?
Think of that wise woman in Prov. 31, that woman of worth who was not afraid of the cold. A godly mother and father are not interested only in making sure their children have an education, money, clothing and things of that nature. It is nice to have them, but if our focus is on these things, we have lost the focus of the Christian life and our treasure in heaven. Our focus is to be upon our Lord in glory. Our goal for our children and grandchildren should be to see them receive a "well-done" from the Lord. We should want this first rather than that they get a prize for some achievement, although that, too, can be for the Lord's glory.