Update-Overwhelmed

Mere hours after my last post, where I confessed that I had basically stopped trusting God in regards to money, I now stand before you overwhelmed by grace.

As of a couple of hours ago, our entire Spring tuition bill is paid. It is as if God wanted me to come to terms with my own heart issue, and then He wanted to show Himself faithful to us once again. So now, when I walk across that stage in May, there will not be a dime of student loan debt following me. Four years of seminary tuition paid for. Simply overwhelming. I'm reminded again of the theme verse for our blog, from Isaiah 40:

 ²⁵ “To whom will you compare me?
   Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
   Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
   and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
   not one of them is missing.
 ²⁷ Why do you complain, Jacob?
   Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
   my cause is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸ Do you not know?
   Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
   and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
   and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
   and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint.

May God be glorified in our lives, for He alone is worthy.

It's A Generous Life

You know how when you learn a new word you then hear that word over and over and over again? Weird how that works, isn't it? (And, in case you have just learned these: demotic. palpitate. See they're everywhere!)

God seems to work the same way, doesn't He? When God wants to teach us something, it shows up over and over again. Or maybe, I'm just a slow learner and God has to show me things several times before I get them.

One of the things that God has been showing me lately has to do with money. I would consider myself a pretty generous person, but here lately God has allowed me (several times) to see the truth about my attitude regarding money, and it is not pretty. It's not nearly as much fun as learning a new word, like saccade.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I want myself and my family to be focused on what we have, not what we don't. And as Christmas approaches, I want us to be a family marked by generosity in every way: time, talents, and treasures.

What about you? What is your goal this holiday season? What is God teaching you lately?