promises.

many times i am blown away at how God provides for jas and me. He promises to always provide and take care of those who are faithful to Him and He has always upheld that promise to my little family.

jas and i don't make a killing financially. i work in higher ed and, until recently, jas was a stay-at-home dad. we never made ends meet. each month, our bills and expenditures far outweighed the paychecks we were bringing home. to make it by, we would live off of our tax refund that we got each february. between that chunk of change we received each winter and our regular paychecks, we floated through until the following february when another refund would roll in.

we used to give to our church as much as possible. some months, however, we had to skip because we just didn't have the funds in the bank account. but, two years ago, i started reading the Bible. the last passages that i read that very first year were from malachi. one passage in particular spoke to me and from then on, we have always given at least 10% of our income to our church. that passage was this from malachi 3:10-11:

"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! Your crops will be abundant, for I will guard them from insects and disease. Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

i love the part where God says, "try it! put me to the test!" 'huh,' i thought, 'i think i will. i'll take that challenge. and then, if we can't do it, it's not my fault - it's God's." it seemed like a no pressure situation to me, so i thought i'd give it a shot. i was simply concentrating on making the tithing part a constant reality for us. i really hadn't gone much further than that. i never in a million years banked on the blessings part of the scripture. i hadn't given it a second thought until last night.

in anticipation of tax time again, jas and i drug out our medical bills to see exactly what figure would be placed in our schedule A for paid medical expenses. imagine our complete surprise when the figure totaled $4,930.58. that's only $69.42 SHY of $5,000! how in the heck were we able to swing that amount out of our teeny tiny budget? jas and i both shook our heads in amazement and smiled. without saying a word, we both knew exactly what the other was thinking. that God has been so good to us and will always provide for the bills He incurs. if only you trust Him and put Him to the test and anticipate that He will provide, He will see to it that you are taken care of in ways you never expected.

i never anticipated that He would provide nearly $5,000 to cover medical expenses, but He did. i never imagined that at the end of the year, we would look back and see that we were able to tithe each and every month PLUS give a little more when our checking account (and unexpected moneys like stimulus checks) allowed. and two years ago when i read that passage in malachi, i never dreamed that we would be where we are today, but we are because we have been faithful and expectant of the promises that God has given us.

i've learned these last few years that it's not my job to ask God how He did it...it's none of my business really. what is my business, however, is thanking God and giving Him the glory for carrying us through this life and the challenges He throws our way. expect and anticipate His help and He will knock your socks off. just wait and see.