In recent days the news has been talking about a bank crash and the unexpected loss of money for their customers. One story I read cited a business executive who lost 4 million dollars and for 18 hours was frantically calling the bank for answers.

Yesterday I read two other stories, both local, about widows who lost their savings to unscrupulous home renovation construction scams. Two separate widows and two separate construction companies. All their retirement savings, gone.

I can’t imagine the anguish in suddenly finding yourself destitute after a lifetime of financial preparation and planning. How does one recover from that? Perhaps more importantly, How does one cope with that?

I suppose the best case scenario begins with having a spiritual foundation that recognizes the Lord as your Provider. The stress and hopelessness that must follow losing your life savings can be eased by faith in your God as your Provider.

In Genesis 22:14 we are introduced to the Lord as our Provider when Abraham declares Him to be Jehovah-jireh, a compound name meaning The Lord our Provider. The text reads, “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day,” In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.” The context is the provision of the lamb in the thicket to replace Issac as the sacrifice.

There is Philippians 4:19, which says, “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” There is Psalm 34:10, which says, “The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.” There is James 1:17, which says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.” There is Psalm 37:25, which says, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

If you have lived any amount of years, you can look back over your life and recall times of despair or struggles to make ends meet. You can likely recall some financial difficult times, but it is just as likely that you have brought out of those circumstances and found yourself out of those difficulties through the provision of the Lord.

Someone has once said, We have nothing to fear for our future except as we forget the Lord’s leading in our past. I believe that. There is hope in knowing that just as the Lord brought us out of past difficulties He will do the same for present difficulties.

I hope you and I will never know the anguish of losing our life savings, but if either of us do, may we have a faith in the Lord our Provider to get us though, and that begins by trusting in Him today.