Let me go back a bit. Six years ago, through a family trauma, I was left (at the age of 60) with nothing but my furniture, my computer and my position as a child of God. I knew no one would hire me at my age and so I went back to school and, one year to the day after the trauma, I registered a little graphic design company called byDesign Media – because I knew God had a plan, a design for my life.
During that six years, He has been faithful to supply everything I needed – but the debt I incurred getting back on my feet has remained and I always seem to be cash poor. I have known there was something wrong – something missing in my understanding of God’s principles because debt is not glorifying to Him and being cash strapped prevents me from doing a lot of things that would bless people.
Last week, I had to borrow $60.00 from my sister to put out a fire at the bank. It was humiliating, depressing and made no sense to me because I tithe and try to do things to honour God. I couldn’t understand why, with my portfolio, my experience and all the things I had produced, I couldn’t seem to enter into the blessing He promised.
I went for prayer counseling to see if there might be curses on my life that hindered the release of God’s supply. When I arrived home after the prayer, there was a message from a Christian magazine asking if I would do the layout and design for this month as their designer is unable to do it this month. I was thrilled, and certainly saw it as an answer to prayer, but the fact remained that I had only five dollars to last me until the end of the month – and there was a lot of month between now and then. I had no fresh fruit left in the frig and my food supply was dwindling. Several friends offered to loan me money, but I was determined not to borrow another cent because it doesn’t solve the big problem – just increases the debt issue.
Last night I read a book by Gary Kersee called, “Fix the Money Thing,” in which He explains some little known secrets of the Kingdom of God. He wrote about Jesus’ teaching of Kingdom laws (just like the natural laws of gravity, etc.) that mirror the same kind of cause and effect. When the five thousand needed to be fed on the hillside, Jesus didn’t just make food appear; He said, “Bring Me what you have.” When the disciples brought the five loaves and two fishes, He blessed then and instructed them to feed the people. After what they had brought to HIm had been multiplied to feed all the people, Jesus instructed them to pick up the “fragments.” They gathered 12 basketsful of left overs.
It occurred to me today that I needed to pay more attention to the “fragments” in my life and give Jesus what I had (my five dollars), bless it and ask Him to release provision from Heaven. I heard about a situation where a lady was in need and so I asked my friend Peter to give her the five dollars. Long story short, he had brought a huge lot of fresh produce from his garden for me and, on the spot, gave me $400. towards some design work he wants me to do. Wow. God is good. Tonight, my refrigerator is full and I am so excited about what I’m learning.
We need to release what we have to God, bless it for His use and know we can never outgive Him.
On the way home, I went into the grocery store. A young Iranian girl was sitting at a little table taking her break. I smiled at her and she said, “Oh I love your scharf! (my favourite one) – I wish I had a scharf like that to wrap around my neck because it’s so cold in here. Hardly thinking twice, I took off the scharf, gave it to her and said, “Tell you what – take my scharf and every time you look at it or wear it, remember how much Jesus loves you.” She was shocked.
Later, I saw her at her post – one of those little tables where people pass out samples, etc. – and there whe was, wearing my scharf. She said, “I really want to thank you. That is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me in my whole life. It’s good to see that there are still some nice people in this world.” With that, she came out from behind her little desk and gave me a big hug – right in the middle of Zehrs! I asked her if she knew Jesus and then the door opened wide for me to tell her about Him and how much He loves her.
Ah – what an exciting life! Miracles – by design!