Posts Tagged ‘God’s provision’

You are Valuable

Sunday, October 8th, 2017

you-are-valuable

Your value does not depend on what other people think of you. Your value is based on who God says you are.

If a bird can’t fall to the ground without our Heavenly Father knowing it (Matthew 10:29), do you think that God doesn’t know absolutely every detail of our lives, including our needs? You are valuable!

So many times I have laid before the Lord a need that I had, and because we didn’t have money, only God could supernaturally provide that need. Over and over again, God provided through yard sales or someone giving me the thing I had asked God for. God knows what we need and He wants us to go to Him as our Jehovah Jireh, our provider.

I’ve shared this story before in the audio Prayer and Provision, where I asked the Lord if I could buy a $6 picture frame at Goodwill that had the perfect matting for a nursery rhyme poster for my daughter’s room. My daughter had no pictures on her newly painted pink walls, and I had no money. The little money I had, I needed for groceries. That’s why I asked God if I could buy the frame. He said yes clearly in my spirit.

worth-more-than-many-sparrows

After getting the frame, I drove to the grocery store, and in the parking lot, I saw money on the ground. It was folded neatly. There were no people in the parking lot, and I picked it up to find out that it was exactly $6, the price of the frame I had just bought!

I have to admit that this was the freakiest answer to prayer I’ve ever had, but God has miraculously provided for me so many times!

Provision isn’t the only thing that makes me feel valuable to God, as if He knows every detail of my life better than I do. Many times I have had to go before people and sit down, being interrogated and falsely accused, and God miraculously gave me the right words to say at the right time. I felt like I was in a lions’ den or in a courtroom without any support except for God Himself. God has come through for me miraculously so many times!

valuable

Even at age 15, I had a supernatural experience where God’s presence was tangible because I cried out to Him in absolute sorrow and horror. God delivered me without anyone else in the room. I tell of this experience in the spiritual warfare audio.

Time and time again, God has proven that His Word is true, and that when He says all the hairs of our head are numbered by God (Luke 12:7), why on earth do we think that we have no value?! No one can take away the value that God gives us, and if Christ died for us, He definitely considers us valuable to Him!

“Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!” Luke 12:24 ESV

If you don’t want to miss any of these posts from the series “31 Days to Regaining Your Identity,” why not sign up for my free monthly newsletter below, and follow my prayer page on Facebook.

you-are-a-masterpiece

 

My daughter and I created the artwork for this series from the course {aff} “You are a Masterpiece” by Alicia Gratehouse. If you love to do art and are discovering who you are in Christ, this is a great art course for you!

The Easter Dress Story

Friday, April 18th, 2014

easter-dress-story

You will love my Easter dress story because you will realize that God is closer to us than we can imagine. He cares about each detail of our lives and is able to provide abundantly beyond all that we could ask or think.

My story begins a few weeks ago when I saw a beautiful Easter dress at Costco. It was perfect for my daughter. I sighed and put it back on the rack. I never buy new clothes for myself or for my children because resale shops are so much more affordable.

Even if I had the money, I would not buy it because money is limited. I either want to use extra money for something of eternal value, or for a refreshment for my marriage (like a getaway), or as an investment in my homeschool speaking ministry (my family business includes product creation, which costs thousands of dollars a year to produce). There is never enough money to do everything. I see money like a giant chess game, where I want to maximize each move to bring the most real joy into our lives.

So I left the Easter dress on the rack.

Easter-dress-story-2

Fast forward a week. A friend of mine was meeting me at the river to go for a walk because of the nice weather. When we arrived, she asked me what size Rachel was, because she had a dress that was too small for her daughter, and she thought it might fit Rachel. It was brand new.

I said sure, that we could look at it after our walk. So off we went for a walk, where I enjoyed sweet fellowship in the Spirit. When we got back to the parking lot, my friend opened her car and showed me the dress.

I had a shocked expression.

That was the exact dress that I wanted at Costco the week before, that I had carefully put back on the rack. And here God was giving it to me through this woman who was obviously prompted by God to offer me the dress.

I was speechless.

This just goes to show how great God is. He is so near. He paid attention to a small detail in my life. I’ve shared with you about how God provided for my needs back when we had no money and a ton of debt. Well, this was different. I didn’t pray about it, but God gave it to me anyway because He knew the desires of my heart.

“Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4 ESV)

 

Old Deck/New Deck

Friday, August 13th, 2010

rotten-deckI am so amazed by God. Earlier this year my husband and I looked out onto our rotten deck and realized that it had to go. Ten years ago when we moved into our house, the inspector told us that we needed to replace the deck. For ten years we haven’t had the money. My husband kept wanting to smash it to pieces, but I knew that it would be a worse eyesore to have nothing. I was using that deck. I’m ashamed to say that I told him, “Just wait ’til someone falls through. Then we’ll replace it.” I was stalling for time. I didn’t want to go into debt for something that was optional.

old-deckWhen this spring came, I saw how awful it was. I had planned to teach a poetry class and film it outside, but alas! The deck looked so putrid that I had to cancel the class before I even announced it. It was dangerous. My husband started chopping the deck to pieces, and we burned it all in our fireplace little by little during the spring. It was nice to have firewood. The wood burned so quickly, I had to keep throwing on more wood just to keep the fire burning.

I had no idea how we were going to pay for the deck, but I thought that at least the hideous thing would be gone. At the worst, there would be a sheer drop off, and no one would be able to go out into the back yard to play.

new-deckA check suddenly arrived in the mail from a relative who had no idea we were replacing our deck. She just decided to give us what she called “early inheritance money.” I had prayed that God would somehow send us the money we needed for the deck, and God certainly answered that prayer. I felt all choked up and ready to cry from gratitude.

My husband designed the deck with benches and planters, in a style that I had never seen before. We hired a Christian handyman to go ahead and begin the work. The entire deck was built while my husband was on a missions trip to the Czech Republic. On the day my husband came back, before going to the airport to pick him up, I planted flowers that were on sale, since it was so late in the summer. It looked beautiful.

I sometimes go out there with a cup of coffee to read my Bible and pray in the morning. God gave me that deck. My husband worked hard to remove tnew-deck-2he old deck, and he was creative to design a deck that I absolutely love. My husband never ceases to amaze me, when I see more good qualities that I haven’t seen before. He would have built the deck himself, but for the lack of time and energy. Even though my husband is a computer programmer, he has done nearly all the renovations in our house himself. I just wish our house would stop falling apart so that my husband could get some rest!