Faith to Obey

Over the last 13 years, God has taught me so many many lessons on faith through my acts of obedience. From my first missions trip to China until now I have been continually stretched to believe and learn that God truly will provide for my every need. 

Recently I have come to realize that sometimes God asks me to do something in order to grow my faith, but at other times, he asks me to do something in order to prove my faith. 

In 1997, I was a relatively new Christian when my pastor presented an opportunity to the congregation to join him on a trip to China. We were going to carry Bibles into the country and visit with some Christians who were truly putting their lives on the line for the gospel's sake. As a college student, this sounded like the adventure of a lifetime; the only catch was that the trip was going to cost a little more than $2000. That was about 3 months worth of living expenses for me which made it totally out of my reach.

I met with Pastor, and he simply said "God never gives vision without provision." That wise saying changed my life.

I began to pray earnestly that if I was supposed to go on this trip, He would make the way. I was willing and able to spend a week of my life overseas if people that had the money and the heart, but not the time or desire to go on this trip, would provide the finances.

I began to share my opportunity with everyone I knew; however, I did not get as much positive feedback or support as I expected. Many of my closest friends and family members thought I was crazy and that the trip was too dangerous for a young single girl to embark on. I prayed harder.

Slowly but surely money began to roll in, but with only a few days left until the payment deadline, I had right at half of my support raised. I was concerned, but I knew that I had vision and the provision was God's part. The very  next day, in my mailbox, there was a check for $1000 from a man that I had met once! He was a friend of one of my friends, and I had met him when we were at lunch a few weeks prior.

Needless to say, God used this lesson to grow my faith.

Like David was prepared with the bear and the lion to slay the giant, I have oftentimes looked back on this experience as my foundational lesson in faith. It has given me the strength, faith and patience that I have needed so many times since then. (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

More recently, Matthew and I have had multiple opportunities to prove our faith. Over the past few years, we have been so blessed to play the role of prayer, payer, goer and stayer.  We have been able to give to others in need and we have received much when we were least expecting it.

In August I asked Matthew if we could give some money towards an upcoming trip to Nepal; he said sure and wrote out the check. When we gave the money at church that night, we asked the missionary if he had need of anything more.  He gracefully responded that there are always needs to be met in this ever growing ministry.  At the end of the service, Matthew told me that he felt like God had told him to give more.  I agreed before I knew how much it was; it was about the equivalent of a house note!

We were excited to be able to give such a significant amount of money towards the mission field, and little did we know, God was about to teach us another huge lesson in faith.  Matthew lost his job the very next week.  The church got wind of our situation and asked if we wanted our recent offering back.  Without even discussing it, we both said absolutely not. 

After talking about the situation, we realized two things: 1. It is not our place to question God and his sovereignty, and 2. God asked us to give that money when we had the means to give it and not after Matthew was unemployed. Like the widow woman in 1 Kings 17, God had put a word in our hearts that was awakened when we did His will.

Fast forward to the Christmas season... I was able to help create the Missions Gift Catalog that my church published this year, and I so wanted to purchase one of everything that was listed there.  One Wednesday afternoon, I was feeling a little sad that we didn't have the money to give towards this effort  when I felt God speak to my spirit that we should give any money that we received that day.

I talked to Matthew about it, and we were both looking forward to seeing what God was going to do.  I began praying that we would get $35 to give.  We proceeded to church that evening with great anticipation; nothing happened.

During worship I poured my heart out to God and told him that he had my heart and that we really wanted to give something.  I thought that this must just be one of those times when God asks you IF you will do something for him, and I reminded him that we were full willing to obey His words to us.

After church, Matthew asked me if anyone had given me anything; I said no and so did he.  Again we were a little disappointed, but we knew that our hearts were in the right place.  Just as we finished the conversation, we walked in the house to see an envelope on the floor in our foyer; someone had slipped an anonymous gift into our mail slot while we were gone. It contained $500! With that money we were able to buy multiple gifts for multiple missionaries in multiple countries. 

Good thing we had purposed in our heart what to do before the situation arose (Daniel 1), or that amount of money could have been hard to give away. After all, we had no income outside of Matthew's unemployment check, and most of us probably stretch ourselves during the months of December and January anyway.

Needless to say, God used that situation to allow us to prove our faithfulness.


So there it is... faith to learn and receive and faith to obey and give.  I hope you get a chance to experience both of these types of faith in your very near future.  I am trusting we will.