Recently, it was brought to my attention that the toys we were counting on for Christmas were very likely not coming this year. With Christmas so close I went through a variety of strong emotions. First, I was angry that I had received such late notice. Then I contemplated trying to make it happen myself. When I thought of how the kids of Dios Me Ve had been asking me when they were supposed to come for their Christmas gift, I just wasn't sure what the right thing was to say. They weren't asking if they would receive gifts. They were asking me when the gifts were coming to their colony.
Being the great spiritual person that I am (sarcasm), I took matters into my own hands and sent out an email to almost my entire contact list and sent out a notice to most of my Facebook friends. After I sent the messages, I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Yes sir, I did the very thing that I had told myself in the beginning of ministry that I wouldn't do.
I'm not even sure how my news came across to friends, but I began to feel like I had really "jumped the gun." I remember thinking how much I wanted to "do ministry" much like George Muller. I remember reading how he only would ask God for his needs and count on God to touch peoples hearts to meet needs.
I thought about how when Dios Me Ve needed property and I just stood on the property and asked God to supply what we needed and for the owner to make his price known to us. I remember I stepped out in faith and bought it with my own money hoping that I would be reimbursed so that I could use that money again and again to help the people of the colony. People started coming to me and asking me how much was needed to purchase the property. People actually would come up to me and put money in my hands and say "We want to bless you and the work that you're doing here."
So, I'm learning again that I need to respond to need first and foremost with prayer. God first and not after I've already told a bunch of people myself. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's wrong to share the need, but I know that in my heart I had decided how I was going to take care of this problem by contacting everyone I knew first.
The response from friends and family has been great. Already, people have started sending checks and some are even bringing or sending toys down to me! I hope that I didn't come across as panicked as I was. I also hope that the next time a need like this presents itself that I will go straight to my heavenly father who already knows what I have need of even before I ask.
God is amazing. He is faithful. If He's in it, then He does it well. I have to remind myself, that God does things in the way that will bring Him glory. He's really not interested in sharing His glory. In fact, I think He gets the most glory when we stay out of His way and let Him speak to the hearts of men and women to meet a need.
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