Jehovah Jireh

2 Kings 4:1-7 - The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves." Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?" "Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little oil." Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side." She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one." But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing. She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."

Yesterday we realized that Jody needed a new computer. Anyone who knows Jody knows that he uses his computer for everything: church, music, movies, art. You name it, Jody has it on his computer. So when he needs a new one, it becomes an immediate must-have purchase.

As I've said before, I'm a planner. I want to research every option out there and find the best deal when I need to make a purchase. I sometimes wait weeks in making my decision even when I'm 99.9% sure what I'm going to do, just to see if a better deal shows up somewhere. Well, we got online last night to look for a laptop and after a few minutes of looking, Jody found one that would meet his needs and was a pretty good deal. I knew how much he needed one and told him that regardless of whether or not we had the money, we could go ahead and make the purchase. (Again, something I rarely do.)

Later last night, I was curious how much money in our savings account wasn't already dedicated to something other than just savings... and lo and behold, it was almost to the dollar the amount we had just spent buying Jody's computer.

Money has always been the one thing I've had the hardest time trusting God with. It's very hard for me to let God guide my decisions, even when they don't seem like the best financial choice at the time. I never would have made such a big purchase on an impulse a few years ago, and it's still very hard for me, but I'm learning that there are many times when you just have to follow God and let Him work out the details. [note: this theme appears a lot in my life... I'm apparently very stubborn]

God doesn't promise riches, but He does require trust and faithfulness. Sometimes I try to take care of all the little things so that God can just have the big stuff. That's not what God wants. He wants all of me: all of my decisions, all of my finances, all of my life. period. He is the Great Provider if only I have faith enough to trust in Him, even when the requests aren't logical to me.