Do you like cliff-hangers? I have to admit there are times I do; and then times I don’t. As a matter of fact sometimes I get downright upset when I have to wait to find out what happened!
Alright, I realize that I left some of you in la-la land in my last post My Cup’s A Fillin’ Up. Some of you might even remember my post in December, God, Did I Just turn Down a Blessing?, where I gave you a teaser of what I’m about to share. That post was about a blessing that started with a phone call from a friend one day shortly after Jeffrey’s hamstring lengthening surgery – a blessing that I was bound and determined NOT to take until I got bopped over the head by words spoken by the friend who was calling.
Let’s set the stage: It was a Saturday afternoon, a couple days after Jeffrey’s surgery. We were hanging out at home, and the phone rang – it was a new friend that I had gotten to know recently from a women’s Bible study we had been in called Experiencing God.
Remember, being “women,” we had gotten to know each other pretty well during this 12-week study, particularly since this study had laid us flat down on the carpet on more than one occasion by the greatness and majesty that we had all been experiencing by what God was doing – and had done – in our lives.
I had previously asked for prayer, sharing with the group our concerns about transportation for Jeffrey as it was becoming more and more difficult to load and unload him from our SUV.
So my friend opens up the call by asking, So, how’s the van hunt going?
That’s an odd way to open a conversation, I thought…
I told her that we had decided to hold off for now as the vans were real expensive. And yes, I admitted to her that I had been fumbling through deep waters lately instead of trusting and waiting patiently for the Lord.
Well, that’s why I’m calling, she informed me. She then went onto share that her and her husband had been blessed financially, and they had been praying about how to tithe according to the Lord’s wishes. The answer that came to them: US!!!
Both her and her husband had decided to transfer stock options to us, and it was up to us as to how we wanted to spend the money. Their only request? No one must know it was from them, because really it wasn’t – it was from our dear, loving, faithful God.
I was shocked and overwhelmed, to say the least: We can’t take that!
Then came the clincher: Linda, are you saying “no” to God?
OUCH! I started crying (of course), and began mumbling about how there were so many other people who needed it more than we did. But then I was reminded of Gary’s words that he really felt blessings were coming our way (My Cup’s A Fillin’ Up)…
A really weird thing – as well as confirmation – came when I got off the phone and told Gary. He wasn’t surprised at all about the call!
We ended up getting in touch with one of our friends who was a stockbroker, who looked into the stock options for us as we really had no clue how stocks worked (suffice it to say that stocks weren’t something we had ever been privy to before!). When he got back to us we were floored at the generosity of our friends. We were able to get all our credit cards paid off (unfortunately we had a lot of debt back then), and then a few months later we were able to place a nice down-payment on a new wheelchair accessible van!
In says in Malachi 3:10 that we’re to bring into God’s storehouse our whole tithe and then wait and see how the Lord blesses you. As a matter of fact, the Lord tells us to “test” him in that regard. Gary and I had been faithful in tithing even when things were tight financially, and we were certainly now experiencing a tremendous blessing. And our friends were also obedient to that command, and they were blessed by watching how the Lord provided for our family.
The saying “you can’t out-give God” is certainly true (2 Corinthians 9:6-11) – why is it just so hard to trust Him sometimes?
The God Of All Comfort 