Henry Bardsley

God Provides Henry Bardsley

Many Christians are either unconcerned about idols or brush them off as irrelevant. Few think they have idols or false gods in their heart. We marvel at why the Israelites bowed down and worshipped an image as obviously false as a gold calf-incorrectly concluding that we would not be so easily deceived. But we are just as blind to our susceptibility to deception as the wilderness Israelites were. I, too, was unaware of the bondage and oppression of my false god: a money idol. My security was in my possessions and investments. My trust and dependency were placed on earning income and wealth accumulation. In the first section of this book, the Lord speaks to me about the money idol in my heart and exhorts me to cast it out. He admonishes me to repent of my false god that can do nothing but enslave me. The Lord exposes the lie that I provide for myself by working. The truth is our Father is the only one who provides. He provides because we are His sons and daughters, not because we work. Provision is not the reason the Lord has us working. The Lord calls on me to choose whom I will serve because "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" Matthew 6:24. The second part of this book clarifies what an idol is and the dire consequence of an idol in our heart: blindness. Like the Israelites, we Christians are ensnared by the false gods of this world, with the money god ranking at the top. Scripture reveals the sequence of steps that lead to setting up an idol in our heart. We can find out if we serve the money god. This book concludes with examples of God providing for people as recorded in Scripture. Also included are Scriptures that declare God is our provider and verses about idols and riches.