Taking God at His Word

I felt like I wanted to write out my thoughts on the kind of faith God has been challenging me to walk in.  It's been a journey that started 5 years ago.  God asked me to trust Him to provide for a basic need in my life.  I felt the challenge was to sit still and let Him do it, not run around trying to do it all myself.  That is not easy!  Let me tell you the story. 

I was living in Redding, CA.  I had moved there the year before and now was out of a home because I needed to bring my cats down to live with me now.  Some friends let me stay at their house for a few weeks and then I got an offer for a temporary place, just until the new batch of BSSM students showed up.  I was frantically searching all the ads for housing for months.  I think I actually started in January, knowing I would be needing a place soon.  I'm guessing I was in the temp home in June.  End of July, still no place to live and my deadline to be out is August 15.  Suddenly I felt like God was telling me to just stop.  Stop looking.  Stop answering ads.  Just stop.  Wait. Trust. 

My stress level went through the roof!!  Say what???  How can I find a place to live if I don't look and contact people?  But I was sure it was God, so I stopped.  It was not an easy season at all! 

But God showed up!  The deadline came.  I had all my stuff packed up and I was just sitting there waiting.  My homegroup friends were coming at 4:00 to get me, to take me back to their place if needed. Around 10:00 I got an email from someone I didn't know, asking if I needed a place to live.  Apparently she was someone I'd contacted a few months before.  I ran over to meet her roommates at noon and it was perfect!!  I didn't have to pay a pet deposit or anything!  So when my friends came to get me, I had a home to move to.  Yay God!!  It was a wonderful home for the next couple years of my time in Redding.  :)

This concept was on my heart.  After another trip to Uganda, I felt I was being challenged about my "rich man" status as an American.  We have so much here. We have so many options, so many back-up plans.  Lose your job?  Here's unemployment money.  Can't afford that new toy?  Here's a credit card.  Don't make enough money?  Here's subsidized housing...  You get where I'm going?  What if we didn't have all those safety nets?  The Ugandans don't.  I believe God was challenging me to get rid of the safety nets in my life. 

Money?  God says He is our Provider, so I stopped using my credit cards.  Working part time at Target is not a high income job.  But I decided to trust that He would make sure I had enough.  When my car broke down, the temptation came to use the credit card.  But when I settled in my mind to stick to what God had asked of me, the bill came back within my price range, or sometimes even free!  I always had enough. 

What about doctors?  God says He's our Healer, so what if I rely on Him alone?  Shortly after I moved to Redding I noticed a painful bump on my gum above my front tooth.  I went to a dentist (before this trust God process started) and was told I needed a root canal, but also a bridge replacement since the affected tooth was holding up one side of my fake tooth.  I said no.  I decided to believe God for healing.  I went in to the Healing Rooms at Bethel every week and got prayed for.  Did it get healed?  Well, it's still there, but 6 years has passed now.  The fake tooth fell out a few months ago, but I feel fine.  I haven't been to a dentist or doctor in years! 

The time came when I decided to move to a new city.  My best friend grew up there so she was trying to help me find a place.  She got me a home for about 3 weeks, then I had to be out because their son was coming home for Thanksgiving.  I believed God was leading me there, so I moved with only a short term home.  The time came, no permanent home, but another family in the church offered me a place temporarily.  After a week, I was able to go back to the first home.  Then shortly I was offered the home I'm in now.  Trusting God to provide was easier this time.

The more times I choose to trust, the more of His amazing Love and care I get to experience.  This verse above is the key.  This is His promise to His kids.  According to HIS riches, He will supply all our needs.

I actually believe that as long as we are stressing and striving to meet our own needs, He lets us.  I think that is why for some, it doesn't work out.  :(  That's just my opinion, but I don't really want to test that theory since the other way has been working out for me.  ;) So here's some more stories that might be called miraculous. 

When I returned from my 4th Uganda visit, I had been unemployed for about 9 months.  I was broke.  But again, I heard God say "wait."  Don't go looking for a job.  Here we go again!  Within a couple days of setting my heart to wait on Him, a friend from Redding contacted me, telling me that his boss was looking for a driver in my area.  I met the boss and was hired immediately.  The job paid more than I've ever made before, and was not very many hours of work.  Yay!  I suddenly had more than I needed financially and I loved the job!  This job gave me the ability to send a lot more to my Ugandan family than ever before, plus many other needs as I ran across them. 

When tax season rolled around, my "self-employed" status had not been fully explained to me, so I owed about $1000 more than I had anticipated.  With one month til tax day, I was not sure what to do.  I had started driving for Lyft and Uber, so I hit that hard, trying to make up the difference.  I had to pay my tax guy, so I started to reach for the credit card... But then I remembered.  In a step of faith, I paid the tax guy with a check instead.  By the time tax day came, I had paid my taxes, and also bought new tires at about $400!  I looked back and my driving had only earned me about $600 and that's before taking out all the gas money it cost me to do it.  So with less than $500 extra income, I still paid out $1600 above what I had thought I had!  I call that a math miracle!

That brings me to today.  My current situation is messy.  My employer has gotten about 2 months behind in paying me.  He bounced another paycheck and took over a month to return that money to me.  The bounce caused me to be unable to pay my quarterly taxes and with only one paycheck received since the bounce, I'm pretty broke.  People around me are telling me to quit, report him, sue him....  But I believe God is telling me to wait and trust.  So I keep working.  Then last week my car quit working.  My car is my job. I am a delivery driver.  So no income, no car.  Yes, I've been stressed out.  Yes, this is hard.  But I still believe. 

The bounced check happened on June 6, I received one check on June 18 and I got the check replacement cashed on July 20. (I'm supposed to get 2 paychecks/mo)  No bill has gone unpaid!  I've always had enough when the due date came.  I have food, I have gas in my car.  People started handing me money.  To date I have been given $600!!  I am blown away by God's people and their generosity toward me in my time of need!  The car repairs came to $610.  So, with my lack of income, barely able to pay my bills, God took care of this extra expense that hit me.  Wow! 

I had 2 different cars I was able to borrow while my car was out of commission.  Friends showed up to help me out every time I broke down!  I was blessed by the generosity of both time and money of my friends and family.  God supplies for our needs through His people some of the time, and through math miracles at others.  But the bottom line is.... He does supply all our needs.  I'm still in the midst of this struggle, but I have complete confidence in my God that He will take care of me!!

This last one is something He led me to via seeing 14:14 on the clock often.  This is one of my favorite promises. This is what I remind myself of every time the stress comes around. 

Be still.  

Rest in Him.  

Trust Him.  

He's got this!