Praise the LORD! How blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who greatly delights in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth; The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, And his righteousness endures forever. Light arises in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious and compassionate and righteous. It is well with the man who is gracious and lends; He will maintain his cause in judgment. For he will never be shaken; The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is upheld, he will not fear, Until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries. He has given freely to the poor; His righteousness endures forever; His horn will be exalted in honor. The wicked will see it and be vexed; He will gnash his teeth and melt away; The desire of the wicked will perish. (Psalms 112:1-10).
|
Let's ask two questions of ourselves.
Am I in this situation because I made a decision that counters God’s principles?
Am I in this situation so that God may be glorified through my trust in Him?
I can remember numerous times when things were not going financially 'smooth.' Let me share one.
At one point, when we were tight on our finances, things started to break down.. I first checked my life to see if I was doing anything wrong. I couldn't find any sin that could be the problem.Meanwhile the car, the appliances, small items, etc... all were breaking down. The anxious thoughts began to mount up. "How am I going to care for this?" "Can I fix that?" How much is a new one?"
I couldn't really do much about it. We not only had bills piling up but things breaking down.
Some of the truths I am teaching during this seminar were fresh in my mind at that time. So I decided to thank the Lord for all the things breaking down. The Lord says, "In everything give thanks." So during family devotions, I without notice started to give thanks going through this long list. When I got half way through my mental list of broken things, the children started giggling and then laughing during my prayer. They knew what was broking down but never saw broken things as reason to give thanks to God .
I didn't have any solutions, but instead I focused on our weaknesses. Once I humbled myself, I could then turn my eyes to God's faithfulness. Not long after, we started to see all these things starting to get fixed or replaced in one way or another.
Let's look over the principles and applications during this session. Next page
