God's got this!

My momma used to tell me that life lessons are "more caught than taught".  There were a few years I can remember when I didn't think she was so smart, but looking back she was very wise.  This ideal must be a generational thing to say because it was the same phrase that was spoken in this week's in a message I heard at church with Dave Ramsey and his daughter Rachel.

In life, we tend to think we have to have all the answers when it comes to money and forget that it all belongs to God.  When we return the tithe back to the Giver, God proves Himself faithful in everything else, and all of our needs are taken care of.  That's what I love about God's grace, we can't out give Him in the grace department.

We can't out give God in anything.  I laugh at myself when I think about the lean years with layoff after layoff with my husbands occupation in the oil field.  There were many job changes and cancer surgeries too, and those lean years were packed with questions and doubt about how we were going to make it.  We had to trust God that He knew what He was doing with all the situations that were happening to our family.  

Trusting God with everything is a process but it requires our complete trust in the One who has given us everything.  

So when it came time to step away from a secure full-time job with benefits to pursue the call of God in writing, God had some arm-twisting He had to do.  I wish I could say that I lept off on pure faith right away, but it took a year of seeking, asking, praying, confirming and re-asking God if this was His will to do so, because I couldn't see how all the money details were going to work out.

All God would say is "Do you trust me?"

Finally I did leep.  I left behind a full time 50+ hour a week job with good medical benefits to give my heart's obedience back to God in complete trust.  That was of course, after God said "yes, it's time to follow me." 

My husband had to give me permission too of course.  In doing so, he wrote me a letter of encouragement to ward off worry that so easily sets in when there is a few blanks left open in the life plan.  My husband wrote of God's faithfulness in a personal note to me and I found it a week before I turned in my resignation.  He basically said, "God has gotten us through to this point, He's not going to lead us astray now."  A peace flooded my soul.  

That was five months ago and I can tell you that we haven't done without a thing.  In fact, God has provided the wisdom and the knowledge to pay off our home in full and the balance remaining on our car loan has been paid in full too.  These victories were accomplished by applying the principals from Dave's Financial Peace University to our finances.

I didn't know that God was up to these big ideas when I said yes to trusting God.  When I think about how far our family has come, in spite of our mistakes financially, it makes me want to trust God even more that I have seen His grace play out in His faithfulness in our lives.  Honestly, I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the grace of God and in this journey of faith, I find myself needing more and more of it everyday.

Today I can hear God say, "Will you trust Me more?"  A question that keeps replaying in my mind.  We are still leaping in faith, and trusting Him until He takes us home.  I know that our faith story will outlast our lives, our kids are watching in the wings as the chains of financial stress lessen.  God's faithfulness and grace goes before us and are holding our future.  

The Father, who has no needs, has all our needs covered.