The Wealth of MoneyPg3
The Wealth of Money (excerpt from Faith-Based Solutions: Believing Your Way to Wealth)
Continued…
…sight of Him increases. We are able to recognize Him working in our life, in situations, in conversations, in songs, etc. It’s so exciting to recognize the hand and heart of God working intimately in your life!
Thankfulness and faith are a very powerful combination that can revolutionize your life. In believing your way to the riches of God, thankfulness must accompany you.
The Black Hole
My husband and I have frequently talked about our black hole. It followed us around most of our married life. We made our share of bad decisions financially, especially early on. We were 18 and 20 years of age when we got married. We bought a house too early. We bought a new car not long after we started making mortgage payments. Then we were tied down to payments because of loans.
Though we made corrections and learned to make smarter choices over time, the black hole would emerge and swallow up anything we had been able to save. I am sure you are familiar with unexpected situations like car repairs, plumbing repairs and doctor visits when the kids get sick. It happened many times over.
We were always on the lookout for opportunities to make more money. Even when we found something we could do for extra cash, it always ended up costing more money than it made us. It wasn’t for a lack of effort or expertise.
Financially, things just always seemed to turn upside down for us—bad timing, bad breaks, and unforeseen circumstances. The black hole. There was no dollar amount that could fill it.
When the 2008 Great Recession hit, we both lost our jobs, and shortly afterward I developed a health issue that required me to be hospitalized twice. We were unable to find regular work as the job market was flooded with professionals who had college degrees (we did not).
Our savings went first, we sold what we could, then the bills piled up, the creditors started calling and the pressure was on. We had one child away at college and one in high school. Through this very difficult time without income, we were struggling to keep a few groceries on the table and pay the very minimal bills we had.
It seemed at the worst possible times throughout this ordeal that our phone service was disconnected, our electricity cut off and our water was turned off—all very humbling experiences. Then the foreclosure notice came.
We tried to sell our house before they could initiate foreclose proceedings, but our realtor, a very honest and caring woman, advised us to do everything we could to keep it. We filed for bankruptcy.
Though my husband and I were strong believers in Christ and followed Him faithfully, including tithing and giving, our faith was stretched to the limit. We each had days when we just lost it—tempers flared and tears flowed. There were days when he comforted me and there were days when I comforted him.
We faced it together–trudged through it together. Though there were times when we were just plain mad at God, we didn’t turn our backs on Him for long because we understood that we were learning humility and developing a deeper and stronger relationship with Him, though it was painful.
To back up a bit, in the years leading up to 2008, we had been more financially prosperous than any time in our marriage. We were living a fairly comfortable lifestyle. We enjoyed raising our family and being involved in children’s and youth ministries at our church.
We became accustomed to being the ones to help when there was a need, and that was a blessing to us. But when things were reversed and we were the ones in need, it was extremely difficult to let go of the pride we didn’t realize was there and ask for help.
We drew closest to God when our situation was the darkest. We tried everything we could to hold onto our house amidst the foreclosure proceedings, and …click here to continue
