“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” Deuteronomy 7:9
Firstly, I would like to say Thank You to everyone who helped me in reaching my first financial deadline for the Race! It is such a relief to not only know that God is Faithful, but to SEE His hand in my fundraising.
Now the story of how God has recently been faithful to me, starts back at the beginning of the year with a conviction. This year God convicted me of tithing. Not just to my sponsor child that I support in Africa, but additionally, 10% of all the money that comes into my hands NEEDS to leave my hands.
Now I’ve always been supportive of tithing, but not necessarily the 10%. But, this year God has shown me that even though He doesn’t need my money, He needs my commitment and trust in Him. He needs me to follow His requests, and if He says 10% I don’t need to over analyze it! Or, put in my opinion about it! I just need to be obedient to my God.
This year specifically I have been holding onto my money, not out of greed, not so that I could buy anything, but out of fear. Fear that if I give away money, or spend money, I won’t have enough to go on the World Race. This fear that I could fail my Lord in some way, and not be obedient to His calling for my Life by simply just messing up financially.
Now this fear, I justified in my mind as being okay. It is okay that I am not tithing because I am just saving money for the Race – and God has called me to the Race – so therefore I am already being a good steward of my money, because I am putting it towards what God has called me to! WRONG. That justification puts none of my Trust in The Lord, and all of my trust in myself.
Yes. Tithing is uncomfortable. Especially if you have student loans out the wazoo, and you are trying to fundraise a lot of money…. BUT God is Faithful. He is the same today, as He was yesterday. He is also all knowing. AND He also tells us to test Him in regards to tithing.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. Malachi 3:10
SO… After knowing that God wanted me to start tithing, I still just kept saying that I’ll do it tomorrow. I conveniently kept postponing it. Then, my fundraising kind of came to a stand still… The whole month of April I got one donation towards my trip. God was gently nudging me, telling me to test Him. Telling me to Trust Him. Telling me to be obedient.
Still fearful, I calculated my tithes – not just for the month of May, but for the whole year up to that point. God gave me the conviction to start tithing at the beginning of the year, SO, I needed to tithe 10% of everything… And I did!
A sense of relief rushed over me, once I hit the submit button on the computer… I tithed to three places that God put on my heart – and it felt good. I was finally listening to God, and being obedient to Him. After that I somewhat expected funds for my trip to just start coming in. I was obedient, so now God can open the floodgates for me right?
Again… I was wrong. I guess God was still teaching me patience… So, I waited… And waited.
Then, miraculously, at the last minute God provided. He provided down to the very dollar that I needed for my first deadline!
Although, with how the computer system works (it takes four days to process donations) I couldn’t SEE that He had provided for me. So, out of fear of missing the deadline (when will I ever learn?) I put in what I thought was the missing amount of money for my first deadline… I doubted that God was going to show up. I again started justifying it in my head, and over analyzing it. Telling myself that maybe God wanted me to put in the missing money.
Today I checked my donation tab… I am the exact amount that I donated myself, OVER what I needed for my first deadline…
So, the moral of this story is TRUST in God. He is faithful. If He says that you can count on Him, than you can Trust that.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5
I don’t mind that I put in extra money for my trip, but that is just that, it was extra. If I would have just expected God to show up – He would have, and He still did, even in my lack of trust. I didn’t need to be fearful.
If God has convicted you of something, it is for a good reason. He knows your heart, He knows what you need to work on in order to build your character. You may not understand WHY you have been convicted of such things, but that is ok.
For me, I still need to work on putting my trust in Him, but thankfully I worship a forgiving, merciful, and understanding God. A loving Father who just laughs with me when I realize that I was being stupid. A God that supports me, even when I am falling short.
I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to watching God show up.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.Romans 8:28
