The Lord is awesome! I’ve been stressing out about how I am going to get the money to go on this mission trip and instead of stressing I let go of the stress and am letting God take care of it. So this is what has happened in the past couple of days. Melanie sold her nice sewing machine for $3700. We have 3 big events coming up soon. 1. Africa Mission Trip. 2. Her parents 50th anniversary. 3. Our 10 year anniversary, we are renewing our vows. So Melanie has put $1000 towards the Mission trip and the rest is being divided up between our anniversary, her parents anniversary, and our church. Is God AWESOME or what? Oh, and it gets better. I sold my motorcycle a couple of months ago and yesterday put my riding gear and some other stuff up for sale. As of right now, I have made around $600 and I haven’t sold everything yet.
I think there is a lesson there. When you start stressing out about something (money, job, relationship, marriage, kids, etc.) your focus moves from God to these other things. When in fact, if you would just give that stress up to God and ask Him for His help…..He will answer. It might not be the answer that we were looking for, but He will answer.
I was watching a reality show, you know the ones where the cameras follow the people and record their lives, and the show was about these financial wealthy wives. One of these women turned 40 and was having a birthday party on a yacht that the husband rented. Her birthday gift was a $40,000 Rolex watch. This thing was beautiful. Had diamonds everywhere. One of the other ladies made a statement stating that having a Rolex watch like hers shows people you have “made it.” Really? Made what? What does this “made it” mean?
I have struggled, like many, with money and possessions. I always wanted to have the fancy car, clothes, watch, boat, jet ski, motorcycle…..you name it and that is what I wanted. Why? To show people that I “made it.” To show people how successful I am. Well, really it was a big front because most of that stuff I really couldn’t afford. As you can tell money and possessions was at the center of my life. September of 2007 that all changed. I was driving home from being in Austin and God spoke to me. “Joe, what are you doing. Why is money and possessions at the center of your life and not Me!” I started to cry. I had to pull over because I didn’t want to hit anyone. It was like God removed the scales from my eyes and and I saw what I had been doing wrong. (Later I thought of this and wondered if this is what Paul felt like.) I suddenly was ashamed with myself. I was ashamed of my fancy car. I was ashamed of my fancy motorcycle. How horrible and wrong of me to put money and possessions in front of God. You have to remember that your money and possessions really are not yours, they are His.
So, my question again is, does a Rolex watch really mean you have made it? The answer is NO!!! If you really want to “make it” then the only way is through Jesus Christ. He has to be what your life is centered around, anything and everything that you do. Your finances, relationships, school, work…..EVERYTHING!
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