Guide: Jamie Terry
Theme: June 2026: Jehovah Jireh | The Lord Will Provide
Scripture References: Genesis 22:1-14
Description: This Jehovah Jireh devotional invites you into a deeper understanding of God as Provider through the story of Abraham’s “Here I am.” Through Scripture, personal reflection, and embodied insight, it explores how identity, origin, and need shape our faith—and how God’s refining presence reveals who we are and who He is. It gently encourages you to trust God’s provision by coming to know Him more fully.
Devotional
“Here I am.” We hear this from Abraham three times. Responding to God right away at the beginning of the story. Responding to Isaac after walking for three days, in the middle of the story. And responding to God once again at the crux of the story. In these three words of Abraham, there is a story of identity as having a place (Here, I am); a body ( Here I am); and a source of being (Here I am). So much of what we do and say, what we believe and how we relate, flows out of who we think we are (identity). Who we think we are tends to come from our family story, our DNA, and the experiences that shaped us early (origin). Together, identity and origin shape what we think we need (provision). And what we think we need has a profound impact on how we relate to God (faith).
“My brother could die.” I said this to my therapist many years ago when my brother was unhoused (thankfully he is safe now). My family and I had attempted to provide him with housing, money, clothing, meaningful social/work opportunities and medical care to no avail. My therapist said, “If his identity is tied to homelessness, what you are trying to provide may feel like a threat to his sense of self.”
Reckoning with what the consequences of homelessness could mean for my brother brought me into questions and prayers around provision, and my relationship with the true provider. If I could just provide enough things for my brother, he would be ok, right? If I could just provide enough love, I could save him, right? I discovered some beliefs I didn’t know I had. I believed I knew what my brother needed more than God. I believed I loved my brother more than God. As long as my identity was wrapped around saving my brother, I couldn’t respond to God like Abraham.
Genesis 22:1 – After these things God tested Abraham…
God testing people has always caused me to shift uncomfortably in my seat. I didn’t understand. “Tested” in Hebrew is related to the word “nasah” – which is more related to refining character than passing an exam. In Latin, the word “testum” referred to a vessel used to separate precious metals from base metals. A shipwright will test a ship by taking it to sea in order to know that the integrity of the craft can hold. I thought being tested meant I had to prove myself to God. But the Creator of the universe who already knows every hair on your head (Matthew 10:30) already knows you, already knows me. So what is meant by this testing?
Testing is about formation, and knowing, but it’s not unidirectional. The God who provides, provides in embodied relationship (Psalm 34:8 – Taste and see that the Lord is good). When God tests us, He is giving us the opportunity to test Him and know Him as well. In His kindness, God allows us to experience and come to know His faithfulness firsthand. To separate a version of God that’s been oxidized by our faulty vision from the true, eternal, abundantly loving “I AM.” By testing, He provides for our greatest need – to know who we are (identity), where we came from (origin), and who holds all things together.
God could tell us about who we are. Instead, time and time again we are shown visually, sensationally, experientially, and relationally. We are invited into an embodied, repetitive re-membering of our bodies and our identities.
While my brother very much needed basic human resources, what he needed most of all was an identity that would allow for him to receive. I thought my greatest need was to protect my brother but more than that I needed a reorientation to God’s character and God’s love. Inside anguish I could not say “Here I am” and I couldn’t see The Great I Am. The moment I said to God, “His life belongs to You,” there was a separation of the gold from the lead.
The Asaro tribe from New Guinea is credited with saying, “Knowledge is a rumor until you feel it in your bones.” In order to trust provision, to trust the Provider, we must know the Provider. In order to know the Provider, we must journey, we must experience, we must feel. The God who provides, loves us too much to let us live in confusion, loves us too much to let confusion go untested.
Abraham was not a perfect hero. He was a flawed human just like you and me. I have to believe that at different moments in this story he must have been wrestling with what was going on. But he remained responsive to God. His faith was refined by testing, and by testing he knew his identity, his origin, and his Provision. This is my prayer for you and for me. That we would welcome testing so that in every season, we would know the One who provides and be able to respond, “Here I am.”
Reflection Questions
- How has your sense of identity shaped what you believe you need in this season? How might that be influencing your understanding of God as Provider?
- Can you recall a time when you were holding tightly to an outcome or trying to “provide” in your own strength? What did that reveal about your view of yourself or of God?
- What is something in your life right now that feels like a “testing” or refining space? How might God be inviting you to know Him more deeply through it?
- As you move through this month, what would it look like to embody the response “Here I am” in your relationship with God?
