Trusting Him

Do you really trust the Lord or do you hold something’s back for you to worry about yourself? Many of us say that we give our worries to the Lord, but are we truly giving it to God? We cannot give them if we remain tense about them. Our hands hold tight to our fears and will relax when we release them.

One of our biggest worries in the world today is money. Especially with the economy and lack of jobs, we just tend to worry a lot! Can we trust God with our money? Years ago, I would say things like, "He doesn't use money, how can he know about it?" or I would say, "I asked Him to help and He hasn't!" In other words, I would ask Him to take my worries but not release them. I have slowly begun to trust through deliberate actions. Each Sunday, I would ask Him what He wanted me to tithe and if I felt comfortable with the figure I would write the check for that amount. Then one Sunday after a week of some extra expenses and still a couple of weeks to go before payday, I asked what He wanted me to tithe I asked if I should pay about 60% of our normal, and I heard "higher". I then asked about 80%, and I heard "higher." Surprised, I asked about 100%, then 120%, then 150%, all with the same answer, “higher”. I began hearing: "Trust me, you'll be blessed". When I reached 200%, I heard him say, "Yes, you will be blessed." I had no idea how we would be blessed and I knew we did not have the money to donate that much. We had never given that much before, but I decided that He knows what’s in store for us and He knows what is safe and what is not safe, so I wrote the check and put it into the offering plate.

That week ended the Pastor Appreciation week for that year and the church had given us a gift certificate to Applebee’s and some cards in their appreciation, but after the tithing, one of the parishioners unexpectedly stopped the service, went up to the pulpit and asked for me to join my husband and him. We were very surprised at this and were totally dumb-founded by this action. We had no idea what was going on. The parishioner handed my husband a small box saying: We just wanted to show you how much we appreciate you two. My husband said, “That is so nice, but you already gave us a dinner!” The parishioner said, “We know, we just felt we needed to give you a little more.” It was a beautiful trinket box from a Christian store. When we opened the box we found a roll of bills.

Later, after the service, we counted the money and found that we received 150% more than we tithed not 5 minutes earlier.

When we are told we can trust God with everything, sometimes we think that doesn't include money but it surely does.

"After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

 “Yes, he does,” he replied.

When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”

 “From others,” Peter answered.

 “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

                                                                                                               Matthew 17:24-27

I know now that I don’t have to worry about what I tithe because God will always bless our faith. I hope you can too.

Prayer Thought

On August 11, 2009, while driving to work, I was listening to a Christian radio station. The minister on the program was discussing Jesus’ return and talked about the excitement we feel and the prayers we should be asking for His return to be soon. I was suddenly struck with a thought. I know it was God talking to me because it was something I never really considered before. “Don’t pray for My return, pray for more time.”

Jesus wants all of us, not just some, to return with Him to Heaven. By praying for His return, we are saying “Those non-believers deserve what they get” just the same as Jonah did with Nineveh.

“Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.  But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.” (Jonah 3:10-4:1)

God rebuked Jonah for his prejudice; “But the LORD said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?” (Jonah 4:10-11) as He should have. God has called for us to love each other, not hate as Jonah did the Ninevites who were not Jewish like Jonah and who the bible describes as wicked. (The grass is still green!)

Pray that God gives us more time to love our neighbors enough to bring more to Christ.

Matthew 11:25-28

I would like to extend a challenge out to everyone. This next week, every thought you have, direct it to God. You do not even have to begin with "Heavenly Father," or "Dear God". Just think of Him as you talk in your head think. Ask for his help in what ever you happen to be trying to do. By doing this you will begin to hear, see, and feel the Lord in your presence. And the more you do this, the more you will feel Him and His interaction in your life.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." (Mat 7:7-8)


When I was a fairly new lay preacher, I got a call from a church member who said her daughter gave birth to triplets and that it was not a real good situation, they were born premature and they were hooked up to all kinds of machines. She said that they were at the Children's Hospital in Kansas City, I did not even think, I just jumped in my car and took off. The drive was a 3 hour ride and half way there I realized I had not gotten the address or even any directions! I did not even know if the hospital was in Kansas City, Kansas or Missouri. I asked God to guide me to the hospital, I am not sure why I did not want to stop and find the address, but I asked Him to show me the way. (it could be that He said 'ask me')
When I got to Kansas City I followed the directions I felt. Take this exit, turn right, turn left, go straight. However, at one point I began to doubt and thought, maybe I ought to stop and get directions, maybe it was me all along tell me to turn and exit and go straight. So I stopped at the next gas station and and went in. When I asked where the Children's Hospital was the attendant pointed in the direction I had been driving and said "Two blocks down, you can't miss it." "Oh, you of little faith." (Mat. 6:30)

Quite often when I question whether it is God telling me something or if I am just fooling myself, I will hear "Trust me". And there is not a single time that I heard those words (they come as thoughts) that when it came out wonderful.

There are also times when something good happens and I thank Him and I hear: "Don't thank me, yet." In those instances something happens that is not real good. It does always turn out right, but I think by Him saying "don't thank me, yet" He is telling me that there is something that is going to happen, but that He will take over if I let Him and then I can thank Him.

Today I wanted to write something because I have been so busy and haven't had the time to log on. I asked Him to let me know what to write and now you have an ear full. Talk to Him, tell Him you burnt the dinner and you are upset. Tell him, your arthritis hurts, you're feeling better, or about the 'A' you got on a test you were sweating about. He wants your companionship, He'll never let you down, and He's the best friend you will ever have.


Blessings

I knew that!

When I was a child, I was told that the stories in the bible were fictional, that they did not really happen, they were allegories to learn from. I was told this by a Sunday school teacher with good intentions.

This was an extremely depressing thought to me and as a child of about 8 or 9 years old, it really crushed me that the stories were learn in the bible might be simply tales with morals. I agonized over this for a bit when one day I was talking to God and decided right there I was not going to believe it. I was going to trust that the bible was the word of God and what He says happened, happened.

Since then, when I see something in the news I get real excited and shout “YES! I knew it!!!”

Is this still more proof of the bible?

Did snakes have legs before the one in the Garden of Eden tempted Eve?
Are these proof of this?
God sentenced the snake to crawl on his belly all the days of his life.



How about this one?

Why are we here?

Isn't it interesting how easy children can do things that we adults have a hard time accepting? I mean, children can talk to God and know that it is God who is talking to them; however, as adults or even tweens and teens, we tend to question. "Is that me, just my thoughts?"

When I was about 8 years old, I asked God the question that has been asked probably since the beginning of time.

“Why are we here?”

I can remember asking that question so many times that I wondered if God was not going to tell me. But the answer was so important to me that I continued to ask. Then one evening, I heard an answer. It came as a thought, but I did not question it. I knew what I heard was definitely from my Lord.

I remember being so shocked at what I heard that I shouted: “That’s IT? Is that all it is? But, that’s so EASY!” I was so excited I wanted to run over to my best friend’s home and tell her, I wanted to tell everyone. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. Then I heard that if I told even one person and that one person believed as much as I did at that time, life as we know it, would change forever. Well, this scared me so bad, that I made myself forget what He said out of fear of slipping up and telling someone. I didn’t want to take any chance that the person I told would believe. Being only 8, I imagined that we would be in a world of total darkness, no feeling, hearing, or sight, and this scared me something terrible.

It took about 40 years and a whole lot of praying and thinking to remember what it was I heard and what I heard was we were here “To learn to love one another.”
“That’s IT? Is that all it is? But, that’s so EASY!” It may be easy to a trusting child who is oblivious to the world around her. It may seem simple to accomplish to a person who believes, but the reality is that people have a hard time with loving those who do not deserve to be loved. But in truth, do any of us deserve to be loved?

In John 15:12 Jesus told us: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

People have a lot of anger, hate, selfishness, stubbornness, and mean spiritedness in them that the idea of loving everyone seems so impossible. But this is Satan telling us, he is the one that whispers in our ears the anger we feel for someone, “he did you wrong” or the selfishness we feel when money is involved or desires pop up. “why can’t you have it all? You deserve it.” We are tempted all around us to lie, cheat, and to be selfish.
In the 1970’s there was a commercial on television for Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars that asked the question “Why is there two pieces?” and they answered with “So I can share.” Today commercials say things like “let go my Eggo” and tell us we need to hide our cookies from others so we can have them all to ourselves. There are commercials that tell us that lying to our kids is acceptable. When is it ever acceptable to lie to our children and then punish them for lying to us?

Matthew 7:12 
¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.


Can you imagine if we did learn to love each other the way God wants us to? Life as we know it truly would change forever. It would become a world that our Lord has wanted for us from the beginning, a Garden of Eden!