"Faith of a Little Seed"
(by Big Tent Revival)
Do you mind if I brag on my awesome God a little bit? I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago, but I was so busy with Christmas & all. I never want to forget how good He is to me though, and I feel like I don't give Him enough credit for all that He has done for me. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned our journey towards financial freedom a time or two. (There are a few more posts, but I won't bore you with all of them). I could tell many stories of the times that God has provided for us in amazing ways! Just before Christmas, He provided for us in such a way that I had to chuckle a little...
See, for the past few years, we had some money that would come in quarterly to provide for things like HOA dues, taxes (at least a little bit of them), back-to-school expenses and Christmas. This year, things didn't quite work out that way, plus we had the added expense of some car repairs that wiped out our emergency fund. [Disclaimer: this is in no way intended for you to pity our situation or anything! We are fine! Yes, we have some debt to pay off, and I greatly anticipate the day that I can tell you that we are debt free! But for now, we are on a tight budget that I try very hard to stick with. God is providing more than we need for our monthly expenses, and all extra is going toward our debt. We are making progress, and I am cautiously optimistic that this will be the year that we pay everything off except for the house!]
Enter the holidays. Starting at around Thanksgiving, I became very discouraged about our financial situation. I felt like we had made such a big dent in our debt over the summer but had barely made a scratch in the fall. We didn't have the money I typically counted on for Christmas, and I knew of other expenses coming up that we had no money for. Then there was the fact that we still hadn't been able to replenish our emergency fund. I sorta moped around about it for a couple of weeks, and then I realized that God was doing something that He had done so often a few years back: giving us each day our daily bread. We had a full pantry & freezer, so I'm not talking actual bread, but He was providing for Christmas a few presents at a time. And He continued to provided enough money to buy gifts for all of our family. We still had some other expenses looming, but I could see that He was providing. For Christmas, at least.
So I had a heart-to-heart talk with Him one day. I told Him that I knew He could provide, and I just really needed Him to do that for me! I told Him exactly how much I needed and when I needed it (as if He didn't already know)! I also reminded Him that there really wasn't anything I could do about it, seeing as the kids were getting out of school for Christmas break (and I couldn't do anything to earn any money before the expenses were due). I wasn't mad at Him when I told Him these things--I wasn't even complaining--I was simply stating the facts & giving up control. There was nothing else I could do. I couldn't rearrange anything else in the budget, and I couldn't make money magically appear in our account! So I gave up. And guess what? He came through!
Through my mister's mad bass-playing skills, some work he did for a friend and an unexpected bonus, God provided every penny that I had asked Him for. And guess what else? He tossed in an extra $25! And that made me chuckle, because that's so like Him! I think it was a subtle reminder that He can do more than I ask. Oh sure, He could've done even more. And He has in the past. But that's not what I needed in the moment. And that's just one of the reasons why I think He's super awesome!
Do you mind if I brag on my awesome God a little bit? I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago, but I was so busy with Christmas & all. I never want to forget how good He is to me though, and I feel like I don't give Him enough credit for all that He has done for me. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned our journey towards financial freedom a time or two. (There are a few more posts, but I won't bore you with all of them). I could tell many stories of the times that God has provided for us in amazing ways! Just before Christmas, He provided for us in such a way that I had to chuckle a little...
See, for the past few years, we had some money that would come in quarterly to provide for things like HOA dues, taxes (at least a little bit of them), back-to-school expenses and Christmas. This year, things didn't quite work out that way, plus we had the added expense of some car repairs that wiped out our emergency fund. [Disclaimer: this is in no way intended for you to pity our situation or anything! We are fine! Yes, we have some debt to pay off, and I greatly anticipate the day that I can tell you that we are debt free! But for now, we are on a tight budget that I try very hard to stick with. God is providing more than we need for our monthly expenses, and all extra is going toward our debt. We are making progress, and I am cautiously optimistic that this will be the year that we pay everything off except for the house!]
Enter the holidays. Starting at around Thanksgiving, I became very discouraged about our financial situation. I felt like we had made such a big dent in our debt over the summer but had barely made a scratch in the fall. We didn't have the money I typically counted on for Christmas, and I knew of other expenses coming up that we had no money for. Then there was the fact that we still hadn't been able to replenish our emergency fund. I sorta moped around about it for a couple of weeks, and then I realized that God was doing something that He had done so often a few years back: giving us each day our daily bread. We had a full pantry & freezer, so I'm not talking actual bread, but He was providing for Christmas a few presents at a time. And He continued to provided enough money to buy gifts for all of our family. We still had some other expenses looming, but I could see that He was providing. For Christmas, at least.
So I had a heart-to-heart talk with Him one day. I told Him that I knew He could provide, and I just really needed Him to do that for me! I told Him exactly how much I needed and when I needed it (as if He didn't already know)! I also reminded Him that there really wasn't anything I could do about it, seeing as the kids were getting out of school for Christmas break (and I couldn't do anything to earn any money before the expenses were due). I wasn't mad at Him when I told Him these things--I wasn't even complaining--I was simply stating the facts & giving up control. There was nothing else I could do. I couldn't rearrange anything else in the budget, and I couldn't make money magically appear in our account! So I gave up. And guess what? He came through!
Through my mister's mad bass-playing skills, some work he did for a friend and an unexpected bonus, God provided every penny that I had asked Him for. And guess what else? He tossed in an extra $25! And that made me chuckle, because that's so like Him! I think it was a subtle reminder that He can do more than I ask. Oh sure, He could've done even more. And He has in the past. But that's not what I needed in the moment. And that's just one of the reasons why I think He's super awesome!
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