This post is a bit late but I wanted to share this story since it was so faith-building for me. A few weeks ago my sister decided to throw a barbeque fundraiser to support my trip. She invited friends and family to support me with an $11 donation and eat as much as they pleased. I decided to pray that this barbeque would bring me to our first fundraising goal of $3500, which meant I needed to raise $607.
I was eager to count during the barbeque but decided to be patient and wait until I was home. I counted $367 raised. It was a wonderful amount but it didn’t take me to where I was hoping (and praying) to get. However, it was such a strange number and did take me to exactly 20% of my total goal so I was happy and certain that God had selected this random number for a reason.
A couple of days later I looked on my fundraising page and was pleasantly surprised when I saw a donation from my brother’s incredible girlfriend that took me to $3505. What was truly incredible though, was that this donation had been made the day before the barbeque! Which meant that the barbeque did get me to my goal I just had the amount that I needed wrong. I was astounded when I realized that my prayer had been answered and surpassed by $5!
I was so grateful for the reminder that unlike God we don’t often see the whole picture. When He responds to our prayers He does so knowing exactly what we need. We have to trust that He knows what He’s doing and wait for Him to answer in His own special way. After all, He responds with more blessings than we even think to ask for. It’s a lesson I think I’m going to be reminded of many times during this process.
(Thank you to everyone who came out to support me at the barbeque! You helped me reach my first goal. And thank you Eden and Sal for putting it together!)
‘And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.’ – 1 John 5:14-15
