After the Trials come the blessings!!!
Please, I know this is long, but seriously, you have to read this till the end to hear about the blessing(s) – God BLOWS MY MIND as always!
Wow. Some of you know how discouraged I was yesterday… so many things happened since we woke up, the computer crashing, Daryl losing his phone right before he was going to meet the guy who wanted to buy our van so we can pay next months rent.
And some other drama I won’t go into. I was feeling like such a LAME Christian, with hardly any faith and just being a whiny baby having a pity party for myself. Then when we were on our way to T-mobile to get Daryl a new phone, I started laughing, because the scripture James 1:2-8 came to mind. “Consider it pure joy my brethren whenever you face trials of amny kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance, and perseverance must finish it’s work so that you may e mature and complete, not lacking anything”….(you know the rest)
Our friend Charity from Mosaic church invited us to have me speak about AFTER HOURS Ministry, along with some amazing people doing amazing things for God. Well, before we went there I was really discouraged, feeling so inadequate and just that I didn’t even have anything to share, since we sold our van we can’t do outreach and blah blah blah…plus I had a fibromyalgia flare up and was in a lot of PAIN.
Charity had a friend pick us up to go to Mosaic so we wouldn’t have to take the motorcycle. WHEW. The Anti-Trafficking meeting was amazing. We heard some awesome testimonies of different ministries and were so encouraged.
I won’t go into too much detail about these different organizations, but here’s their websites:
There was STOP THE TRAFFIK which focus on preventing the sale of people. www.stopthetraffik.org
Polaris Project Los Angeles which is committed to combating human trafficking and modern day slavery. www.polarisproject.org
La Loves – a non-profit organization devoted to unifying faith and the arts for the benefit of humanity www.laloves.org
Tiny Stars – is a non government agency exposing the multi-billion dollar industry of the child sex tourism. www.tinystars.org
You need to look up their websites cause I wouldn’t do them justice by trying to explain what they do.
Plus I’m already long winded enough.
Okay, We were concerned about paying rent next month, realizing the other day that we only had a couple weeks to come up with the money. Not to mention a number of new bills, like our VISA we’ve been having to use lately which we hate doing.
Since I was stressed that we weren’t able to meet with the guy buying the van yet once we got Daryl’s new phone the guys number was on his voicemail – I heard, “You are putting too much trust in getting money from selling the van, you need to trust in Me.”
After we left Mosaic, the woman (I don’t want to use her name in case she wants to remain anonymous) who gave us a ride asked us how much our rent was every month. I told her, $949 – and she said that God had already told her that he wanted her to pay for next months rent!!! She was so cute, cause she said that she asked Him a couple of times if she had heard right, and He strogly assured her that he told her more than a few times! So she took out her checkbook and wrote us a check for $950!!! HALLELUJAH, Praise the Lord!!!
I felt so ashamed for being such a jerk earlier, oh ye of little faith… but now we can not only just pay or rent, but pay off our Visa and the other bills we have stacked up!!! Thank You Jesus! Yes, God is still on the throne, Laurie. HELLO!
Okay, that’s not it, as if that wasn’t enough… this morning Daryl went to apply for a job and it was paying WAY less (about 1/2 as much as he usually makes truck driving) and he was just going to take it if they gave it to him. Then when he was leaving the place, he got a phone call from the job he’d applied at MONTHS ago – the job he really wanted that pays well, has benefits etc. They did his backgroud check and he passed and they are going to hire him!!!! Thank You Lord Jesus!!!
God is sooooo good, and I have spent all morning repenting for my lame attitude and doubt. We were so blessed last night at Mosaic and the people we met are so amazing. Please, look at the ministries websites – they are doing such amazing things, and we can all to get involved somehow.
Thank you for your prayers, and I hope that this will be an encouragement… I should already know this, and how many times must I go through trials before I stand on the FACT that God is so faithful, without wavering? What a wretched (wo)man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Praise His Holy Name!
