Wrapping Up 2007 With Blessings!

What an eventful year this has been. It has occurred to me that much of what has happened revolves around financial issues.

We began the year by committing to never again making ourselves slaves (debtors) to any man and getting out of debt (including our house) as soon as we possibly could. This was a huge step for Josh. When we got married we mutually believed that debt was wrong. But, as sin often does, it gradually crept up on us, and we found ourselves justifying having a credit card in case of an emergency (rather than relying on God and being financially responsible) and we bought into the lie that we had to establish our "credit" in order to be able to eventually buy a house.

When Josh rededicated his life to the Lord, this was the very first area that God convicted him about. It was the first test of his resolve, and one of the hardest things for him to commit to. But he did it knowing with his heart that God promises to take care of the needs of His children, that He alone is worthy of our trust in every area, and that God longs for us to prove Him so that he can open up the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing, that we might not have room enough to receive it. Once the decision was made, we could hardly wait to see what God was going to do, and especially how he was going to do it.

God's faithfulness has been shown time and time again. One of the most memorable biographies I have ever read was George Mueller's. What a tremendous man of faith! I've always longed to be able to rely on God so completely, but never believed that I could experience what he did. Not really. Although I knew it to be true intellectually, and would profess it was so, my heart didn't truly believe that God was still in the miracle working business.

Let God be true and every man a liar.

He is.

I can't even remember all the ways and times God has come through for us just in time this past year, but recently God drove His point home in a very big way.

After church on Dec. 23rd, we went to Dairy Queen for dinner. As we were walking back to the van I saw two small booklets lying on the ground. Inside were two debit gift cards; one was for $20 and the other for $50. I jokingly said to Josh, "Honey! Look what God gave us for Christmas. Money!" (I will be completely honest with you: I wanted to keep them. But after a brief prayer for help and wisdom, I knew I needed to do everything in my power to see that they were restored to their rightful owners. Josh agreed that it was the only right thing to do.)

I called the credit card company first thing the next morning to report them lost and found. They basically told me that there was nothing they could do since they were prepaid debit cards. They wouldn't even call the people who lost them to tell them they had been lost and then found. They claimed they make no outgoing calls. So I called the mall where they were purchased and explained the situation to them. They said there was nothing else they could do either since they had been selling thousands and thousands of those cards every day, and there was no way they could take the time to look through all of the paperwork for those particular cards. They said that the cards had been flagged as lost, but there was nothing they could do about it if I chose to spend them. They said the ball was entirely in my court. I could chose to use the cards or cut them up and throw them away. If I chose the latter, the mall would more than likely end up with the money.

With complete confidence, I cut them up. I couldn't escape the fact that the money was not mine.

About this same time, Amanda was helping me list some things on ebay. I didn't expect to get more than $10 for any given item. To date, by the goodness of God alone, I have made three and a half times the amount of those gift cards!!! I didn't correlate the two incidences until I was driving to meet my sister for lunch on Saturday, and I could not stem the tears that came with the realization.

God's coffers are full. He doesn't want our money He wants our hearts. And He knows that it's not until He has our hearts, that we can be entrusted with riches, as only then will we use them as He sees fit. You and I can NEVER out-give God! :)