Where is the provision?

Why is it that sometimes we hold so tightly onto what is ours, or what we have earned, or what we have? As if we are trying to protect it, use it for ourselves, save it for a rainy day? We work and spend and try to save, but mostly work and spend in a vicious cycle that continues to entrap us; to enslave us to a life of subsistence and just getting by. Seemingly allowing us to put extra aside until the next expenditure comes. And we look up out of this pit of debt and obligations and see the progress that we need to once again make and wonder, where is the provision that I need? Where is the provision that I am promised by the Word of God? Why do I spend so much time looking up from this pit and never make it to looking down from the mountain-top? I know I read somewhere, Jesus said don't worry about what you should eat and what you should wear and if God takes care of the sparrows He is going to take care of me? What in the world is the mystery that causes some children of God to crawl thirsty through sparse deserts and others to abound and stumble over abundance? I have two questions ... Are you seeking FIRST the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness? Where is your heart toward and are you actively Giving to the Kingdom? When I say Kingdom of God, I am not referring to just Heaven. I am not referring to the church. I am not referring to Jesus. I am referring to it all. But specifically, I am referring to the Gospel. The good news. The God living in you. The new creation He has made in you. The power he has given you. The anointing He has released on you. The call He has placed on you. The authority He has given you. The gifts He has released to you. The mission in which He depends on you. It is the body of believers. It is the finished work of Jesus Christ. It is the supernatural; reality beyond our ability to see and understand and sense. It is faith beyond reason and rational. It is the Word of God, living and defeating and revealing and changing lives until every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess and praise God. The Kingdom is all of it, and it's impacted by everything you do or don't do and every word you speak as well as those idle words that we may think are insignificant. Serve the Kingdom with all your heart, with all you do, and with all you have and give. I am sure you have heard a preacher condemn you saying, you are cursed with a curse if you are not tithing; you are robbing God. Well it is true, that this verse is Old Covenant and we are under the New Covenant, and we are no longer under the curse, but if you are a child of God, you are under the blessing. And what does the blessing say in this verse: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." For starters, if you want to have abundance, put God to the test with being faithful in your tithes. Secondly, start to look at your giving. The giving of your time, your resources, your hands and feet, your service. Did you know that Apostle Paul wrote two chapters to the Corinthians about giving in 2 Corinthians 8&9. Paul was addressing an issue in chapter 8 when he spoke about a Grace of Giving. He said "many, the previous year were very generous in their giving and promises to give; they had fantastic intentions, but have not followed up with actually giving." He said, "Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means." Many people fall into this category. Our heart wants to give, we want to help, we want to contribute, we want to play a meaningful roll in the Kingdom, but we never step out to do something and give. We never trust God's promises enough, with child-like faith, to step into what the world calls foolishness and where the flesh screams it may perish, and depend solely upon His promises to provide the way. Trust in God and give as selflessly as He has given to you. Give with a cheerful heart. Paul said, in 2Cor9:6 Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows blessings (eulogiais) will reap blessings. (This is true, look it up in the Greek). Each one of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for a cheerful giver loves God. (This isn't a mistype either, look it up in the Greek). This is translated sometimes to say God loves a cheerful giver, but it is actually translated as a Cheerful Giver loves God. If you love God, you should be a cheerful giver. He says, He (God) who supplies seed to the sower (you who are seeding blessings with a cheerful heart) and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed (blessings) and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. If you want to see the promise of abundance fulfilled in all aspects of your life, if you want blessings to over flow so much so that you can't contain, if you want so much that you will always have more than enough to help people, you need to get a revelation in your heart of giving and then you need to finish the work, so that your eager willingness to give may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. And the more you do this and are faithful with what God has given you, he will expand your means to give and to bless and to serve and to love. Learn to find joy in seeking the Kingdom and giving of the seed God has given you. Give, even when you're hungry. Serve, even when you have no time. Love, even when you feel empty. Sow Blessings.