For the first time, I'm broke and happy.

“God bless, God bless, God bless.  Thank you so much.”

His sign read “WILL WORK FOR FOOD.  PLEASE HELP ME OUT.”  I told Jess we were turning around.  With tears in my eyes, I looked at a man that had nothing.  Jesus would give to him.  That’s literally a thought I had as I approached the man that had wrecked my heart.

Rewind to last night.  Right before I fell asleep, my head was spinning.  I was mentally calculating how much money I had in my wallet versus what I had to pay for this weekend.  I’m going to a wedding shower in Anderson and I need gas money, gift money, and food money.   And, as usual, I was coming up short and my Saturday was going to be spent on a real tight budget. 

To be totally honest, I always feel guilty when I pray for the Lord to bless my finances.  I don’t give 10% to my church every paycheck (or even once a month), I don’t donate my time or my money to the less fortunate.  Even bigger than that, I’m pretty selfish with the money I make and I can always, always, always find something to spend it on.  And that’s a promise.

Despite all of my shortcomings financially, I know that Jesus is good.  That does not excuse my frivolous spending or my lack of giving back, but I have seen that regardless of my sin, the Lord works for my good.  For that reason, I prayed for God to do some miraculous work in my bank account.

Fast forward to today when I got to work.  It was a sorta slow morning and my gears were turning again as I tried to guess how much money I thought I’d make.  I was annoyed and tired and frustrated because I thought it would be less than I desired. 

Upon clocking out of work, I picked up my tips and was floored to find literally twice money as much as I thought I would have.  I knew that that was an answered prayer.  Despite my irresponsibility, my selfishness, and my downright disregard for the budget that I should be keep, Jesus had blessed me big.

After getting lunch and heading back towards home, I passed that man.  It was rainy, but his sign was very clear.  I turned around, set on doing something with what the Lord had blessed me with.  No, my tips didn’t make me rich.  And yes, the weekend would still be tight.  But there are more and more times lately where I can hear the Lord speak to me loud and clear.  Not turning around wasn’t even an option. 

With tears in my eyes, I told the man to have a good day.  And as he asked God to bless me, I felt the happiest I’ve felt in a long time.

Jesus has done mountains of work in me this summer.  He’s wrecked me up, pulled me together, and pointed me in the way that He wants me to go.  I’ve been selfish about almost everything and the desperation on that man’s face told me that.

The Lord orchestrated all of that perfectly to bless me and to bless him.  I’m very humbled by God’s faithfulness to provide, even when I screw things up.  I’m a sinner, but praise Jesus that there’s grace for that.

God blesses obedience.  I’m not sure about a lot of things in life, but continually, that message rings out to be true.  Continually, answering when the Lord calls leads to my joy.  Thank God He knows better than I do.

“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” Romans 4:16-25

Thank you, Jesus, for being good enough when I'm not good enough.