Great is thy faithfulness

In keeping with the "faith" posts I have a story to share with you ladies. I went back and forth on whether or not to share this but Nat and Ashley encouraged me to be bold and go ahead and share! Please know my reason for posting this is to boast in God's amazing faith, everything about this is totally God ordained! OK before we get started....it's impossible to tell this story without going off on sidenotes because God literally had his hand in so many different areas that to fully grasp it you have to hear all the different details. So if you are up for a bit of a long post, read on. (It's a quick read, I promise!)

Wow, where to begin...I guess first off the story starts with David and I being SO tight on finances at the moment that we didn't know how we were going to come up with July's rent. We knew this would be a tight month b/c my boss has been out of town for most of it and therefore I wasn't working as many hours God had given us a peace that somehow he would provide like he always has but as the rent date grew closer and closer, we were jusst too short each passing day. We cut out ALL groceries, tried to limit gas, cut out all outings and still the extra cash just wans't there. Amazingly we still had a peace though (it was so clearly not from me because I'm such a planner and I cannot stand when things are not planned correctly. )

So about 3 weeks ago our church wrote us a check for $200 becuase they just felt led to do so (amazing I know!) We were blown away and beyond excited. That same day our sweet Natalie posted about tithing. Specifically from the passage Malachi 3:6-18. You may remember that post, it was about Robbing God. That post stuck out to me like no other post has before. I read it to David and he was touched by it to. We read it just before going on a walk with the pup and the whole walk this post was knawing at me! specifically the part that said:

8 "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

Our whole walk I kept hearing God's voice saying "test me Megan" this money the church had given us was clearly not ours, as much as I wanted to keep that money and make rent that month, the money just didn't feel like mine. It's like when you are walking behind someone and you see them drop a $100 bill. You just wouldn't keep that money because you jsut KNOW it is not yours. You would run up to them and give it back. That is exactly how I felt. The whole walk I was praying to God saying "OK God, if you want us to give this money back then YOU have to give David a peace about it and soften his heart. Because I KNOW He will look at me like I am crazy if I suggest this to him. Give up our only chance at making rent??? WHAT??!" I so badly wanted to ask him on while still on our walk if we could give it back but I felt God saying "just wait, I will make the perfect time..." I kept asking God all night "is this the time? I don't want him to get too attached to the money if we are giving it back haha" Finally that night I felt a peace about broaching the subject with David. I barely uttered the words, "what do you think about tithing the money back...I didn't even finish my sentence and David said "YES. I think we should" I doubted him and said "are you sure" Not real smart of me but I was just shocked that I didn't have to convince him! (Like I said, this is all CLEARLY from God, because we would not have these feelings/reactions on our own!).

Here's the part where I feel akward sharing but Nat really encouraged me to! ahhhh! (God we give you the praise and the glory!) with that being said, on Sunday, David wrote a check back to the church, the $200 they gave us then another $200. I was not able to be at church that day (we were at Nat's bday party!) and he called me and said, "sooooo God just wrote a check for another $200. I DID NOT want to write it but my hand just kept moving and I wrote $400 instead of $200" (sidenote...initial reaction....ok wow, we are now $400 behind instead of just $200 behind on rent...second reaction... Thank you Lord for speaking to my husband! Thank you for working in his heart and for his obediance! What we have is not ours and you will provide!) The pastor saw a check from us and called David aside and teasing him said "if the church gives you money you don't give it back! That money is from God!" hahaha David explained to him why we did and that we never felt like it was ours in the first place. He told him about the Verse that just spoke to us and asked the pastor to pray over our finances and for us to make wise decissions with our money. The 2 of them prayed right there and David called me SO excited and filled with peace!

Soooo...put that side of the story on the burner for a second....The following weekend AshBear came to spend the night with me. In one of our amazing talks Ashley said, "OK, I was reading in 1Kings:17 and I wrote up a whole post for it but I didn't post it because I felt like God saying to me, this post is for Megan." She felt unsure if she should share it with me or if it meant anything but since we were deap in conversationg she shared it (Thank you SO much for Obeying God's tugging on your heart Ash!) The story is a women who is barren and is helping out the prophet Elijah. He asks her what she wants in return for her help and she says nothing, he tells her by this time next year you will have a son. Sure enough God grants her a son who later becomes ill and dies. She is so upset with Elijah and says why did you bring this on me? I didn't ask for anything, why did you give me a son just for him to die? Elija goes and prays over the boy and pleads with God to save him and God does. Elija brought the boy down to the mother-alive- and the first thing the grieving mother did was fall down and give praise to God, then she went to her son. Now like I said...lots of litte bunny trails....but I really thought Ashley was sharing this story with me because I am having fertilitiy issues from my Lupus. I have been SO sad and discouraged at some recent news in that department and I really truely felt God was putting this on Ashley's heart to give me a peace about one day having a child. I was extatic and so thankful to Ash for sharing. It stuck out to BOTH of us how obediant that woman was to first praise God then go to her son. Can you imagine your precious son dying, and when he comes back to life the first thing you do is not to throw your arms around him and kiss him but instead to FIRST thank and praise God! Wow talk about Obediance!

NO fastforward about 5 days (If anyone is keeping track...rent is due in 7 days haha) David walks in the door with the mail in his hand and tears in his eyes. He hands me a letter which I read " Megan and David, your faithfulness has inspired us to obey God and act in faith in return. Please accept this "non-refundable" check led by God to bless you. Love your pastor, elders and malibu church family" David then hands me a check for $1,000 (yes that is THREE zeros)!!!!!!!!!

We both just started to cry then instantly I heard the 1Kings story in my head FIRST praise God, then do what you need to do. Right then and there, it was such a strong feeling of needing to bow down before our LORD and praise and thank him. I was in such shock I didn't even have words to say other than "THANK YOU FOR YOUR FAITHFULNESS GOD. HELP US TO BE GOOD STEUARTS OF THIS MONEY. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU"

Our church is NOT a wealthy church, it has 30 people on a good day. Our church knew that David had asked for prayer over finances but they did NOT know it was so urgent that we didn't have rent. God is so faithful, HE gave us such a peace, HE softened our hearts, HE put it on the pastors heart, HE just wants us to obey and have faith that he will provide. I knew he would provide somehow, I just never in my wildest dreams imagined it would be dropped in our mailbox! We had enough for rent and groceries! Wow so amazing! Thank you Lord. Ashley thank you for sharing that story, I thought all along the purpose of it was to give me a peace about having a child one day...when really the story was to remind me to give God the praise and the Glory FIRST. To be obediant in HIM! It's amazing and crazy to look back at how many little areas God had his hand in to prepare us for this check to come. Starting with the smaller check, Natalie's post saying not to rob God, softening David's heart, placing a story on Ashely's mind.... God is SO faithful, even when we don't see it. He is working towards us. We have to be careful not to complain like the Isrealites and miss out on our blessings he has in store for us. Truth is, even if that $1000 check hadn't come in the mail, I know God would have provided some other way, through odd jobs or someway. God is just so faithful like that!

For those of you who have made it this far (sorry for the LONG post), I pray you are amazed by God's faith like we are! I pray you are encouraged to give up your worries to the Lord and know that he is ALWAYS faithful! I pray that we will all remember the beautful story from 1Kings reminding us to FIRST be obediant to God and give him the praise! Like I said at beginning, I really hope this post doesn't come across as bragging "We obeyed and we had faith" because that is not the case. The truth is, God had faith, God gave us peace, God reminded us to obey. He is just that amazing and that worthy to be praised.

2 Timothy 2:13
"If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is."