Tag: God stories today

God Follows Through

In my experience, when God leads us to do something, God usually helps us get it done. I’m not saying hard times won’t happen. I’m not saying that we won’t go through pain, but when God leads us to do something, God will be with us to make it happen. In other words, God follows through. This is post three of the “God Moments” series.

Debt

Like post two, this God Moment story begins at our church. Our church had been trying to pay off a debt for the new children’s building. The building provided a larger place for our growing group of children. Now that the building was built, our church wanted to reduce the debt and free up the church finances so that our church could serve our community and God’s world in other ways.

Paying the Mortgage is Our Responsibility

My husband and I wanted to contribute. In fact, we felt that as members of the church, this was our church and OUR mortgage.  It was our duty to help pay the bills just as it was our duty to pay the mortgage of our home. We just were not sure of the amount we should contribute. When we bought our own home, we cut back on some things because we wanted THAT home. Our home was more important than some of the stuff we cut out of our lifestyle. We felt the same about church home.

But How Much Do We Pay?

My husband and I decided to pray and hoped that God would lead us. After prayer, we came up with an amount that seemed hard for us. We wanted to practice putting God before our own material desires. We had just bought a home, and we had planned on renovating the living room, but we were now going to postpone the renovation for 3 years in order to give to our church. We did this not expecting anything exciting to happen, but something exciting did happen.

Follow God Without Expectations

Before I go on, I want to explain what I am NOT saying. I am not saying that every time you sacrifice God rewards you with money. Many times people have sacrificed for God and even paid the ultimate sacrifice of death. But sometimes I think God does show us just how much we can trust God to take care of us.  When we trust God, God finds a way to show us God’s presence. When God leads us to do God’s will, God helps us get it done.

We Followed and God Helped Us Get It Done

We made a pledge that would not leave us struggling, but would make us have to hold off on some spending. After we took that leap of faith and pledged our financial giving to the church, my husband received an unexpected raise at work AND found out that he was getting some backpay money he didn’t know he had coming!

Giving Changed Our Priorities

You know what was funny? In the process, we realized that we didn’t need the elaborate renovation we had originally planned. With this unexpected money, we were able to do a less elaborate renovation in 2 years instead of three AND we decided to give an extra financial gift to our church as a Christmas gift. In fact, we didn’t count this gift as part of our pledge and gave it as an EXTRA gift.

When I say we, I mean my husband because I wanted to count the gift as part of our financial pledge. I had to bite my tongue when my husband said, “Yeah, I think I am going to give this extra money to the church.” I wanted to say, ‘but when it is time to pay that last chunk of money that we have pledged to the church, aren’t you going to wish you had counted this money as part of our pledge?’ But I knew this was something good my husband wanted to do, so I held back from saying anything.

Just Wait, The Story Gets Even Better!

So we gave that extra money without counting it toward the pledge. But a few months later our pledge was due, and we were kicking ourselves for not counting Christmas gift as part of our pledge.  You would think we would have been better at trusting God after all of this, but when it was time for our last payment to the campaign WEEEE WERE NERVOUS! It was year three of the campaign, and we had one BIG chunk of our pledge to give. Oh, did I mention that the amount we gave at Christmas WAS the amount we had left to give!

So with heavy hearts, we reluctantly wrote that check and gave that last sum to the church.

No Really, The Story Does Get Better! Bring On The Arm Chills

Do you know what happened the very next week?!!!! My husband was asked to do an extra one-time BIG job at work that paid him almost the EXACT amount we gave to the church! I mean, just wow! We didn’t get loads and loads of extra money, but we got the money we needed to serve God and our brothers and sisters at our church. I am tellin’ ya! One day, I hope to have more trust, because God keeps blowing me away when God shows up! All I can say is God follows through.

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You May Also Enjoy

This is such a fun Journal! You can use this journal to write down you prayers, questions, thoughts, and God moments. In other words, use the journal to write down all the times in your life when God follows through.

After writing, you can color in the journal while you pray and think about what you just wrote. What a great way to slow down and be mindful!

I love prayer journals and am always recommending them. Since Thanksgiving is around the corner, I want to focus on some Gratitute and thanksgiving focused journals. Check them out below.

And this is a children’s gratitude journal! What a great way to to get the whole family involved!

More God Moments

God Moments: Did That Just Happen?

God Moments: We Chose the Same Picture

God Moments: We Prayed and then This Happened!

God Moments: I Was So Afraid

God Moments: We Ran Out of Gas

18 Weeks to a Healthier, Happier, More Purposeful Life

This article has been updated and is an adaptation from a story in 18 Weeks to a Healthier, Happier, More Purposeful Life. This unique book was written by Lacy Ngo, a dietitian nationally recognized as a top expert in faith-based mindfulness and evidence-based nutrition. She shares the exact steps that, based on science, produce the most dramatic health and weight loss success in her book, 18 Weeks to a Healthier, Happier, More Purposeful Life. This book is like nothing you have ever seen before. It combines faith and science. Both are crucial when it comes to producing real change because real change involves the mind, body, and spirit. This is an adaption from a story in the book, 18 Weeks to a Healthier, Happier, More Purposeful Life.

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