I have volunteered. I am now in a prayer army. I'll start at the beginning:
At the beginning of the year, my husband and I decided that we needed to curb excess spending and really tighten our purse strings. We had saved a bunch, borrowed some, and built a garage on our property. We now needed to restock our savings. The plan was implemented, and I created a new budget on Excel. By the way, I love Excel and I love budgeting. Yes, I'm strange, but I love seeing savings build and plugging those numbers into their respective categories to see how we are doing financially. We do very well in having no other debt than our mortgage and now garage that we'll eventually roll into the mortgage. I love the savings building so much that I even voluntarily agreed to postpone the kitchen remodel that we've been talking about since we bought the house (only a year and a half ago). Yipee! Let the savings begin!
Somewhere about a couple months ago, my handsome man and I individually began to be convicted that we needed to give more. We began to discuss it, and found that God had already laid that out with the other! How awesome is that? I love it when He does that, especially with finances.
Shortly thereafter, we became aware of some friends who had financial needs due to a loss of provisions from another source. It was a no-brainer. I feel honored to be a part of their adventure!
Just the other day, literally, I received my invitation to enlist as a prayer warrior for these friends, specifically on the health battlefield. Satan has been able to see that they are solid threats to him and has been on the attack. Not only are the adults' health affected, the 2 young one's are as well. These are the more emotionally distressing battles. If you feel led, please join me, at least on this National Day of Prayer, to lift up my friends, J & M, living overseas, as they strive to serve the Lord where He calls them. In an effort to keep them safe, that is all the information I can give. If you would like more information, leave me your email and I will fill you in (if I don't have your email!).
I hope we all have a specific focus for our prayer. I've been able to "see" so many answered prayers, and even those that don't turn out the way we thought, but better! How incredible that we can directly speak to our God!
O LORD, You have seen this; be not silent. Do not be far from them, O lord. Awake, and rise to their defense! Contend for them, my God and my Lord. Vindicate them in Your righteousness, O lord my God; do not let them gloat over them. Ps. 35:22-24 (their/them, my emphasis) from Praying God's Word.
First of all, I am lifting your friends up in prayer for healing. Second of all, you mentioned increasing your giving....Joel and I have found that when we give from our hearts, the blessings come back to us with such abundance! We struggled and went behind for nearly 2 yrs recently when our move to another town could not happen because the house we purchased had a hidden chemical smell and made my health worse than it was. For 2 yrs we waited for the house to re-sell. We made the decision to keep on tithing even though we went behind sometimes up to $500 a month. We felt called to do so....and an abundance of blessings came into our lives that kept us afloat financially and strengthened our faith when we followed His call. We still have alot of debt to pay off due to our hasty decision to buy that other house, but we are able to pay it off because we also learned how to handle our money better!!! Isn't God amazing?!
ReplyDeleteMay you be blessed this day and in your future as only God can do.