Psalm 13:3-6
3 Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!
Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
4 Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love.Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
4 Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
6 I will sing to the Lord
because he is good to me.
In my last blog I shared about my church’s difficult financial situation. I thought by this point I would have to take a major pay cut and start working more shifts at Caddyshack—but I haven’t. God has supplied my church’s need!
In November an unexpected check for nearly $3,000 came in to cover where we were going to be short. It was out of the blue, something I never could have imagined! God is so creative in how he wants to bless his children.
Then this past Sunday a check was found in our giving box for
$5,000! I’m told it was given by someone who hasn’t attended in several months and wasn’t even in the service this week. How did they slip in unnoticed to give us this enormous gift? Why did they do it? Did they know we are hurting? Did they feel “lead” to do it? Did an angel take out their checkbook and write the check for them?!
$5,000! I’m told it was given by someone who hasn’t attended in several months and wasn’t even in the service this week. How did they slip in unnoticed to give us this enormous gift? Why did they do it? Did they know we are hurting? Did they feel “lead” to do it? Did an angel take out their checkbook and write the check for them?!
I fear I will become addicted to these kinds of miracles. I want to simply trust that God will meet my need no matter what. What if next month the big check doesn’t show up and I have to make up the difference with tips at Caddyshack? Will I keep “trusting in His unfailing love?” Will I still “sing because he is good to me?”
That has been the struggle entering year six of “Bill’s excellent church planting adventure”. At the beginning I was filled with hope and determined that God was going to do amazing things. More than anything I believed that He was going to use me to shine light in a restaurant where people needed hope. Five plus years into it, my zeal and joy and have waned. I started to notice this a couple of years ago. I found myself depressed and in survival mode. About a year ago I determined that I needed to find my joy and get back to being “Wild Willy”. (More on “Wild Willy” in future blogs!) I needed to figure out how to be happy doing hard things.
This has always been my struggle—when life is hard I quit and just do something else and think that the “new thing” will bring happiness. Sometimes it does for a short while, but soon the new thing has its struggles too. I want to be like Paul who said, “I’ve learned to be content in whatever state I am in.” He wasn’t talking about Florida, Georgia, New Mexico or Nebraska—he was talking about prison and ship wrecks and making tents to scrape by.
All three of my kids are home now and life feels really good! This is how I want life to always “feel”, but it doesn’t and I want to learn how to be happy no matter what. To find joy no matter what situation God has placed me is my new quest.
Bill I'm so glad for the miracles God is bringing to your church. I'm sorry that you are struggling so personally. I love Philippians 4:11, I can remember growing up especially in my teenage years Mom always quoting that verse to me. It took many years to truly understand what it was really saying, and to be able to apply it to my life. I've now made it my life's goal, I have my life verse and my goal verse. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't had my Mom and Dad to look at as an example. I am so amazed at the Faithfulness to God they have shown no matter what the adversities that the devil throws their way. I know there have been times when Dad got discouraged, especially in the first 10 years of their ministry, but one thing I do know is that as long as they are in God's will they are safe and God gives them peace in what they are doing. You should send Dad an e-mail, he is so easy to talk to or you could get on Skype with him. His e-mail is jimindo39@hotmail.com I know he would love to hear from you. We love you guys and are praying for you. Bekah
ReplyDeleteI've been praying for contentment as well. I've come to realize that even if I get everything I want some day, I still won't be content; I'll find something else to fret about. So I'm working to have contentment now, which will carry over into the future. Christ is all we need. When will we get that?
ReplyDeleteGina
Oh, and so cool how God provided the money for you guys. He's so fun.
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