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I'm not so sure I have confidence in my ability to make it through tough times. I do know that God is faithful and good and provides what we need. What we need, of course, is not the same as what we want. When Karen and Jeremy were visiting last week, Kathy promised them they could occupy our guest room/office if they should both lose their paychecks and have nowhere else to turn. Kathy said we would also take in their cats, provided they get along with Blaise and Soren. :)
Of course, the reality is, much as we love Jeremy and Karen, we don't really want them living with us any more than they want to live with us. It would be crowded and uncomfortable in our small home. But if the recession deepens and becomes a depression, we would have to make do. The joy of being followers of Jesus is that we will all starve together. That sounds funny, but what I mean is that we can share what we have to help each other. Those who have much will not have too much, and those who have little will not have too little. We are called to look not only to our own needs, but also to the needs of others. So unless as a collective we all lose our jobs and homes and the ability to acquire food, no one in the community should be hungry or living without a roof over their head unless it is by their own continual choosing.
We tend to fear the unknown. I have been and am wealthy by most standards. I have also lived on bread and beans for long periods of time. After my Dad died, our family struggled just to survive. Living through that built an intense bond among us siblings and our church community that exists to this day. Those of you who attended our banquet in Phoenix got to meet some of the lovely people who God used to help supply our needs. God saw us through. We did not die. We did not become homeless. We always ate. Bags of groceries appeared on our doorstep. A kindhearted man who ran a drug and alcohol program brought us 'out of date' food he collected from grocery stores. I would not want to have to live on what we ate then, but we ate. God met our needs, not our wants. Mostly because our wants are insatiable. Our needs are measurable. Please be assured that God will see us through whatever comes. And he will use us as his agents if we are generous and committed to his ways.
King David said in Psalms 37:25-26
I was young and now I am old,
yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread.
26 They are always generous and lend freely;
their children will be blessed. NIV
It doesn't mean it can't happen, I suppose, but it gives me much comfort to have seen in my own life what David saw in his.
Trust in Jehovah Jirah, God the Provider. Provider is one of his great names.
Rod |
