A cup, a half-cup, or just a hair? How do you answer a waitress who asks if you would like another cup of coffee? Dad almost always chose the third option. He liked coffee and drank a lot of it. But, he liked puzzled reactions. Most are not quite sure how to measure coffee by the hair. But, this I know, a “hair” was hardly sufficient because each “hair” was followed by “a hair more, please.”
God answers our needs by giving just what we need in daily increments of time. Jesus tells us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Mt. 6:11). There’s something beautiful about trusting in God for the daily provisions of life. He will provide if we “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…” (Mt. 6:33). In this, there is a reminder of God’s daily provision of manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness. We must not worry about the next day, for “Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Mt. 6:34).
It is remarkable that God often chooses to answer our prayers just when we need them—just in the nick of time. We are encouraged in Scripture to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hb. 4:16). It is not because of any deficit in His power or concern. It is because our greatest blessing is often that blessing which comes as a result of waiting for the Lord (Is. 40:31).
Don’t get me wrong, God also answers prayer as one who, “rides through the heavens to [our] help, through the skies in his majesty…” (Dt. 33:26). For the One who has made the heavens and the earth, “Nothing is too difficult…” (Jer. 32:17). If “we ask anything according to His will, He hears us…[and] we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him” (1 Jn. 5:14-15). He “is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us…” (Eph. 3:20). This is why prayer is God’s antidote to anxiety and our access to incomprehensible peace (Ph. 4:6-7).
When it comes to our redemption through His blood, we have “forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us” (Eph. 1:7-8). We are not saved by the skin of our teeth; but by the super-abundance of grace found in Christ Jesus. In Christ, the cup is not half-full or half-empty – it is continually filled to overflowing. This is good news because we need more than “just a hair” of His grace.
–Glen Elliott–