Hold Fast

Our present life circumstance has us awaiting, expectantly, many miracles of God.  I shared not to long ago THIS story about a miracle God did.  There have been MANY more.  Mostly I am keeping private the things that God is doing and how He is working.  However, I felt led this morning to give an update and share a particular "God thing" to hopefully encourage you and spur you on in the faith if you find yourself in a time of trial, waiting and trusting. 

I was sharing with a friend the other day how I used to look at our budget, OVERWHELMED, thinking "we need $654" and thinking "how is that going to happen?" and now I may see we need $654 but we need $52 by Monday and $75 by Tuesday at 3pm, and $269 by Friday and so on....

and I am here to tell you THIS is how the miracles have come.  Each need met by God in HIS timing.  Each slowly growing my faith to trust!  

I am going to tell you two stories with different outcomes and my response to each; However in each you will see God's hand at work! 

The first story is actually the last...

I needed $106 to pay 2 bills; both bills were automatically paid with a date of the 6th. We had no money on the 5th, no promise of payments to come, just HOPE. Hopefully those automatic payments take a few days to hit the bank; so, I just trusted God.

Well, on the 6th a check came from a customer who owed us $134.  $60 would be ours after we paid for the part.  Well, we opened it and the check was for $200.  ??!??

Hubby called the customer to inquire and she said she put a "little tip" in there for us.  :))

Let me show you the math:

$200
-$74 for the part hubby purchased to fix her thingmabob
-20 tithe
=you guessed it $106

Now, I didn't figure the MATH until Monday and I was blown away! but shouldn't have been because that IS MY GOD!

back up...and about the tithe--on Sunday I asked hubby if he wanted me to tithe on the gross or deduct the part and tithe on the profit.  It was such a small amount he said "God can do more with "that little" than we can"!

We made a commitment to God and our church to faithfully tithe 10%.  I am not here to debate tithing I am just testifying to God's faithfulness.  It isn't because we tithe that God is faithful; but we want to tithe because God is faithful!


The next story you will see my lack of faith... but now my faith abounds even MORE!


Necessary background info:
Sometime ago our family decided NO MORE CREDIT (we had too much debt) so no more were we going to put anything on credit.  If we didn't have the money to have it-then we didn't need it.  Meanwhile trying to pay on the debt we already had is difficult with the economy and my husbands lack of work. 

See if you can follow:
*We are self-employed
*To be a business you are REQUIRED to carry certain insurances
*To have insurances they require payment
*To get future jobs you have to have insurance whether you have money to make payments or not

So, with no money-we made the TOUGH decision to pay 2 NECESSARY bills on credit.

*Neither company accepted credit cards
*but with our credit cards they gave us "convenience checks" where we can write checks off of our credit card balance
*Had plenty of balance on the card to cover the bills
*Paid the bills with convenience check

Got a call from company 1 that the check was returned
I asked her to give me a bit to look into it and I would get back to her

*called credit card company thinking maybe the checks were old since I never used them
come to find out we could use the "card" for purchases but there was no "cash" available (okay?)
*Can you raise my "cash" limit for just this instance-pleading-- begging

{insert beginning to panic here} {We were working a deal and if we can't prove we have insurance and it is canceled for non-payment....ahhhhhh}

No. 

*Called another card
*not enought there either
*can you raise my limit? You are a company for small businesses we are a small business and we are in a tough spot {insert lots of explaining} What about a supervisor?

bottom line: No


Lord, are you going to allow our insurances to cancel? How are we going to get work? Here we had credit? Can't use it? What are we going to do?

{Insert tears and sobbing here}

I say to hubby "I am going to call her back and see if she will just give us until Monday, please just Monday to give us time to borrow the money." He says "No, just call her back and ask her how much time she can give you" put the ball in her court. 

So, I call and she says oh! You will have to get a letter of cancellation in th mail you wil have about 15 days to make payment.


15 days! That is like a lifetime the way God has been working! Cool! We can work with 15 days.

I tell her "My God will provide. Somehow. Someway! Do you believe it?" She said "yes!"

I call the other company to "warn" them that payment is coming back and explain what all has gone on and she is like "no big deal" pay us as soon as you get it all straightened out. 

Guess what--this is getting long so let me sum it up for you

On Monday we get a call that a company that owes us $1,000's of dollars has a small payment for us.  They have owed us since October.  Since October. Nothing! Never gotten a dime.  Until Monday we got 1/4th of what they owe. 

and we could pay our insurances NOT on credit. 

My God is SO good!  

Now, that wasn't a fun story.
We kept trying to make our way and it wasn't working
but God made HIS way!

I was so happy to call back Mrs. Phillips and tell her how my God miraculously provided!

So, the moral of my story is: 

Hold fast
Help is on the way
Hold fast
He's come to save the day
What I've learned in my life
One thing greater than my strife
Is His grasp
So hold fast

Mercy Me
Hold Fast lyrics

To everyone who's hurting
To those who've had enough
To all the undeserving
That should cover all of us
Please do not let go
I promise there is hope

Hold fast
Help is on the way
Hold fast
He's come to save the day
What I've learned in my life
One thing greater than my strife
Is His grasp
So hold fast

Will this season ever pass?
Can we stop this ride?
Will we see the sun at last?
Or could this be our lot in life?
Please do not let go
I promise you there's hope

You may think you're all alone
And there's no way that anyone could know
What you're going through
But if you only hear one thing
Just understand that we are all the same
Searching for the truth
The truth of what we're soon to face
Unless someone comes to take our place
Is there anyone?
All we want is to be free
Free from our captivity, Lord
Here He comes

Lyrics from: HERE