Jehovah Jireh

Last week I was lying in bed while visitng my sister in Texas, getting ready for one of my favorite pastimes: sleeping. Curled up under the warm comforter doing the cozy stick-one-foot-out-of-the-comforter-to-stay-semi-cool, I was just about to doze off when a sick dread came over me. Quickly, I bolted upright and checked the important reminders section of my lovely outdated flip phone and my uneasy feeling was confirmed:

World Race Fundraising Deadline: $3,500 by May 5th

Instantly, I knew I was in trouble and worry started creeping into my entire being. At the moment, I had only $1,700 in my account. Funding was coming in slower than the world's oldest sloth and I hadn't been recieving any support in the past 2 months. Somehow I was going to have to raise $1,800 more in a matter of weeks.

At this point, my mind began racing. How many more support letters could I write? Who else could I tell about The World Race? How in the world was I going to get $1,800? Fundraising ideas, letters of plea, and desperate thoughts bounced around in my head as I thought about how to quickly raise this amount of money (who needs two kidneys anyway?).

At this point, I was starting to get really anxious. What if I couldn't get the money in time and wouldn't be able to go on The World Race? Everyone had told me that if I was supposed to go, then God would raise the money for me. But what if it meant that I wasn't going to be able to go? What would I do then? Tears started welling up as I thought about a possibly of not being able to go.

At this time, I started having a really honest talk with God. More like a desperate pleading, begging Him to provide the money so I could go. My mind kept revolving around Matthew 7:7 "Ask and you shall recieve" and I simply kept hoping that God was feeling rather generous. 

And finally I gave up. Mainly because it was 3 a.m. by this point and I was at the point of exhaustion. I couldn't do anything anyway. So I sleepily told God, "It's all up to you now." and hoped for the best. Maybe in the morning I'd try to figure something out.

The next day, I checked my World Race account. I cannot describe the joy that I felt in that moment as I saw $150 more dollars placed in my account by family friends. $150 is a small amount compared to $16,000 but to me it spoke volumes.

God was giving me his blessing to go on The World Race.

God will provide for me. Every single dollar until I am fully funded.

And to make things better, He didn't just stop there.

I came back to my apartment at Lee late on Sunday, two days after I had recieved my gift of $150, to find a card laying on my desk. Another friend was donating $100 to my trip and wished me all the best. The next day, I come back from class to find another card lying on my desk. After some coaxing, I recieved the story of how it ended up there:

As I was gone during the week to visit my sister in Texas, some girls from my hall organized a pizza-making party. Each girl that came brought whatever ingredients they had and together, they created pizzas. Then they went around to other apartments and friends that they knew and sold the pizzas for $1 a slice. In total, they ended up raising over $140.

As I listened to the story, I stood there in awe. Sometimes, God simply provides and that's all we ask of Him. But sometimes, God not only provides, but also creates beautiful stories to go along with His gifts to remind us how great He truly is. He has, after all, been creating stories since the beginning of time. 

But no, God didn't stop there. 

The very next day, I check my World Race account again. My mouth drops open and I refresh the page to make sure I'm not hallucinating. Another family had been led to donate $1,000.

In a matter of 5 days, God had raised $1,390 for me. I didn't do any of it. Right now, I know God's just chuckling at me, nodding His head as He murmurs, "I told you I'd take care of it."

And He truly is Jehova Jireh. The God who Provides.

So at the moment, I only need $500 more to meet my final deadline. But then, I still have $12,000 more to go before it's all due in December.

I still need your help.

First of all, I'm selling shirts! The profits will go towards my trip and they're really cool! $15 a shirt for either crewcut or V-neck shirts. Check out the link if you're interested: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NPWV8X6

Design by: Zeke Tucker

Please help me raise this money. God's the provider, but He always uses his people to do his work in order to teach them lessons. Every dollar means a lot to me! Ask God to show you how you can help. Check out the Support Me! link on the left.

And to all those who've already donated: 

THANK YOU!!

Making Something Out Of Nothing

Yesterday, I wrote this lesson to share with the girls at Lake Forest Middle and I think it was for me just as much as it was for the girls. 

I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD. They are plans for peace and not disaster; plans to give you a future filled with hope. Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will hear you.When you look for me, you will find me.          (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

The Bible always talks about people such as Moses and David who were commanded by God to do something really awesome, like be leaders for entire nations and be kings, but did you know that God could use you to be leaders just like them? Sometimes it feels like we are nothing special, and that God could never use us to do great and amazing things like lead people out of slavery or become a king but looking through the Bible shows that the people that God used to become great were everyday people like you and me.  

When Samuel was asked by God to choose one of Jesse’s sons to become the next king, Samuel first wanted to appoint Eliab, the oldest of Jesse’s eight sons but God tells Samuel:

"Don't look at his appearance or how tall he is, because I have rejected him. God does not see as humans see. Humans look at outward appearances, but the LORD looks into the heart."  (1 Samuel 16:7)

The Lord wasn’t looking for a strong person or someone good-looking, but for someone who had the right heart, someone who followed God’s obedience. Samuel went through seven of the brothers before God chose the youngest, David. Not even David’s own dad, Jesse thought there was anything special about him, as he was the youngest and the Shepard, something no one else in the family wanted to do. But God used David to defeat the giant Goliath and become the greatest king of Israel.

There are many other examples of people in the Bible that many people wouldn’t think that they could be great leaders but God used them to show that He uses people who, to the world, may look like they are nothing special but God used them to be something great. Moses had a stuttering problem and was afraid to speak but God still used him to speak to the Pharaoh of Egypt and Moses leaded thousands of Israelites out of slavery. Gideon was farming when God told him to lead an army of 300 against an army that numbered in the thousands. Gideon, a farmer boy, who at first doubted God, ended up defeating the huge army and saving the Israelites. In fact, the Bible even says that when people saw Jesus, they didn’t think He was important:

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and thought him as scum.”                                    (Isaiah 53:2-3) 

Not even Jesus looked like a king and He turned out to be the Savior for the world. In 1 Corinthians, it tells us that we can be used too, even if we don’t think we’re anything important:

Brothers and sisters, consider what you were when God called you to be Christians. Not many of you were wise from a human point of view. You were not in powerful positions or in the upper social classes. But God chose what the world considers nonsense to put wise people to shame. God chose what the world considers weak to put what is strong to shame. God chose what the world considers ordinary and what it despises-what it considers to be nothing-in order to destroy what it considers to be something.                                                 (1 Corinthians 1:27-31)

God will choose ANYBODY that is willing to follow what He tells them. In Hebrews 11, it tells of all the people in the Bible who achieved great things through God even though at the time, people around them called them outcasts.

And to be honest, being used by God can be kind of scary too. Imagine if you had to speak to an entire country about all the bad things they had done. The good thing is that God is always there with us; He doesn’t abandon us.

In the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah is a prophet chosen by God but he was scared because he wasn’t sure of what to say to the entire nation of Israel. But God tells Jeremiah:

“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”  “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you.  And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”  Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, “Look, I have put words in your mouth!”                                                        (Jeremiah 1:5-9)

It’s such a great thing to learn that God has chosen us for amazing plans! In Isaiah, God tells the prophet Isaiah, 

 I have taken you from the ends of the earth and called you from its most distant places. I said to you, 'You are my servant. I've chosen you; I haven't rejected you. Don't be afraid, because I am with you. Don't be intimidated; I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will support you with my victorious right hand. (Isaiah 41:9-10)

It’s also interesting to know that even the prophets were scared about the same things that we are, such as being laughed at or not having anybody believe us. But God tells us to not be scared because He is right next to us to strengthen us and help us when we are scared. Through God, we have the power to change the world, we just need to believe that God can use us and not doubt in Him. Even though we are young does not mean that God can’t use us because 1 Timothy 4:12 says:

Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

When we have faith that God can do awesome things then He will begin to use us. Sometimes, it starts off by just being nice to someone in class or obeying your parents, but those small things will add up until we realize that we have been doing great things all along! Mother Teresa, someone who did really great things through God, once said, “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.” So start today by believing that God can use you, and start asking Him what you can do.