We often rejoice when abundance comes and there is more than enough or when the answers to our prayers come. What happens when the abundance is not there and it is just enough for the day or week? What happens when the complete answer to our prayers have not manifested? Is God in that?
The answer is yes. The same God that gives abundance also sustains us. The word sustain means to keep or to maintain even in difficult situations.
God sustained Elijah during the drought. He caused the ravens to bring meat every morning and evening. When the brook dried up the Lord sent Elijah to a widow who barely had enough.
1Kings 17:9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which [belongeth] to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
God sustained the children of Israel in the wilderness. They had to trust God to give manna daily (collecting extra for the next day was not allowed except fo the sabbath). Their clothes did not get old and they were in good health.
Nehemiah 9:21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, [so that] they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.
God promises to sustain us when we give Him our burdens. When He sustains us then we will not be shaken by trials. He gives us strength to endure.
Psalm 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
We have been promised to be sustained in our times of weakness.
Proverbs 18:14 ¶ The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?
In Matthew 6:11, Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread. It is in the daily provision that we see the faithfulness of God. We see that He cares about everything and the little details of our lives.
The point is to be thankful in the waiting and to see God’s hand of faithfulness through it all. He wakes us up daily and gives us what we need for that day. We should always believe Him for the abundance and to answer our prayers,but also appreciate the ways that He keeps us going through the hard times. If He did not sustain us then we would have given up. His grace is sufficient.
Psalm 3:5 I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.