God continually answers our prayers, and I have been noticing this more and more lately. We need, of course, to remember our prayers in order to see the answers we receive to them, but that only helps and enables us to continually keep Christ in our thoughts because if we focus on looking for the answers, we are focusing on who we asked!
My husband, Markell, and I decided that even though we don't have much while he's in school, that we need to give more in offerings. So, we made the decision to increase our offerings to 5% of my gross wage and put the matter in God's hands. Markell prayed "Lord, we are giving back to you and trusting in Your promise to provide for us. As you challenge us to in Malachi, we are testing you in this."
The next day was payday and, as usual, I went to the bank to withdraw our tithe and offerings. I was shocked to discover that we were more than $100 short for our rent this month. It worried me, and I almost didn't tell my husband because he worries a lot, but God impressed upon me that I had to because what kind of a test would it be if Markell didn't know the whole story? Markell surprised me and was very calm, although he suggested we take the money from his student loan. I said, "No, we won't need to" then he asked where we would get the money and I reminded him that God would provide, were we not testing Him in this matter?
Sabbath morning we put our offering in the plate and placed it in God's hands. After Sabbath was over, I telephoned my sister who told me that Markell had received an envelope from an old employer (Markell hadn't worked for this company for 8 or 9 months!). The envelope had come through the mail unsealed, so she had sealed it and set it aside for us. Her youngest son, however, had gotten ahold of the envelope and opened it, spilling the contents and she said it looked like a cheque! I said "WHAT?" and asked her to look for me. Sure enough, she came back to the phone and said it was a "Payroll Refund" and was for more than $200.00 - enough to pay tithe & offerings with and still cover our rent deficit!
God is SOOOOO amazing! I ran to tell Markell and we could not help but jump and shout for joy and praise God! My sister didn't know when she could bring it to us, but I placed that in God's hands as well. Surprise, surprise, late Sunday evening, my sister shows up at the door. While I don't usually thank God for ear infections, her oldest son had an ear ache, so they brought him into the hospital to get it checked out and decided that since they were in town they would stop to see us and drop off the cheque at the same time!
Praises be to God!
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Sarah Moss
*Prayer Changes Things!*