Why is God so AWESOME to us when we are so AWFUL to each other and Him?
It seems like every time Cory and I get upset with each other, choose to follow the world and not the Spirit, or just get anxious about funds coming in for our trip God ALWAYS shows up. It never fails, He always proves Himself to be more faithful than we ever gave Him credit for, He provides for us in ways we never thought possible, and He does all of this in the midst of our sin, anger, doubt, and worry.
To brag on Him a little, here are a few stories of how GREAT our God really is::
1.) When we got back from training camp we had about $14,000 in support, whether actually in our account or in monthly pledges. But it started to become overwhelming how much money we still had to raise. We thought that since we hadn’t looked at our account since we left for training camp that of course it would have more in it when we got back, but it didn’t. So on top of it being our last month and the stress of that, we were moving out of our apartment, having goodbye parties, traveling out of town, moving into a temporary place for the next month, and having to raise $18,000. Needless to say we let the Enemy get the best of us and we started to worry. But in the week that we got back from training camp, God brought in over $6,000 in one week!! God proves Himself sovereign and our provider.
2.) Cory and I have been living with a couple from church about 5 miles from where we used to live (also another way that God is AWESOME!) We also have been spending most of our free time (and when I say most I pretty much mean all of our time) with our friends, trying to see them all as much as we can before we leave. But with work and our social lives, we have not had anytime for each other, which leads to getting crabby and short with each other. Well we are in Columbus right now spending our last weekend with Cory’s family and that has also meant no alone time and just talking with each other, so of course we have let everything from the past few weeks of not being able to see and spend time with each other boil over, and yes it is right before we are heading to church in the morning to ask them if they would like to support us. We have about 2 hours in the morning to try to reconcile our relationship before we start asking others to join our support team, but in this house we like to take things down to the wire (or I like to be really stubborn, either one).
So we are sitting in the church parking lot trying to talk through this, and while we have said the big things we haven’t really made amends we have just said what was on our minds, but we get out of the car anyway and head into church. At the end of the church service the pastor asks us to come up and share about our trip and how people can get involved, so we do and we do it really quickly forgetting to mention that we leave next Tuesday or other kinda important things. But we head into the entrance for everyone to talk with us afterwards and to our astonishment everyone in that church came up to talk to one of us! Even on a holiday weekend, when most people were gone and the people that were there did not know we were going to be there, took out their wallets and check books and gave as generously as they could. We raised $750 in just one morning at a church I had never been to, with people I had never met, right after Cory and I were not loving to each other! God proves Himself faithful and full of grace.
In the past week we have raised over $1700 through our yard sale, our Facebook challenge, and speaking to 2 churches in Columbus! God is AWESOME even when I am AWFUL.
What are some ways you have seen God provide for you, or show you grace at a time when you definitely did not deserve it?
