Learning to Walk by Faith
Posted 3/11/08
Regarding my college career, I was fortunate that my parents were able to pay for the first few years. However, I was then on my own to pay for the last 2 years (4 semesters) as my brother was starting his college career and my parents didn't have enough money to pay for both of us. It was obviously only fair that my parents pay his first years as they did for me.
Guess what? I was originally short the full amount of money I needed to pay tuition every semster for all 4 semesters. This is where God started teaching me to live by faith. Heb 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." God was teaching me to "believe" on him. I know most everyone says they believe but most people don't know that the word "believe" means to trust in, rely on, and adhere to. I never knew a person who truly trusted only God for money, health or any other of life's concerns. I sure didn't! Afterall, that's what jobs, doctors, dentists, psychiatrists, lawyers, police, etc. are for. No one would dare really believe on God and only God for this stuff would they? Well, as God started teaching me about faith, I had heard that if you can't believe God for money, you can't believe for much, and if you're not faithful in small things, you will not be faithful in large things. If you can't believe God to provide you with $5 when you don't have it and you need it, how will you trust in God to provide you a car or a house? I have another testimony on how I had to believe God for $5 once to put gas in my truck when I had absolutely no money. I will post that testimony when God directs.
I have already posted the testimony, Transferring Schools. In that testimony, I told about how God paid for one of my semesters of school when no one knew that I needed anything. I will tell you right now that no one knew that I ever needed anything for my other semesters of school either. Not my family nor my friends, only God. Do you know that I could have easily went to my parents and they would have found a way to give me money or I could have went myself and taken out a loan like a lot of kids do? However, I didn't. I went to God. I figured if this Bible is true, God has to come through for me "if" I believe. If God didn't come through for me, I said to myself that I would never pick up a Bible again. Well why would I if it didn't work, if God's words aren't true? I found out that God's word is true and he will always work in a person's life if they believe. I will also boldly tell you that to this day I still have not told any man what I need and I never will. I know that some will call me arrogant, but this is called faith. Faith in God, not man and not even of myself.
I was 21 years old, living at home with my parents going to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). I had already seen how God came through for me in my Transferring Schools testimony so at the end of a fall semster, I found out that I was short a couple hundred dollars for the upcoming spring semester. Again, I chose to seek God, read the Psalms out loud as much as possible and believe as much as was within me. The time came near where the money was due. I was sitting in my bedroom with the door closed (I didn't want some of my own family to hear me reading and praying, that's called PRIDE.) I remember that it was a cold snowy night. I got to the point where I read all the Psalms I could and I knew I just wanted to go for a walk outside and pray. It was great to go outside and pray in winter at night because as I walked down the street, everyone's windows and curtains were closed (more pride). I walked and prayed for only about a half hour. I got back to the house, took off my boots, and my mom called me into the family room where she was sitting along with my brother. My mom looked at me and said, "I just finished going over your brother's tuition for this semester and I have an extra $200, do you need it?" I smiled and told her I'll take it and then told her how I was believing God and he came through again for me. I understand that wicked people will say that it wasn't God that gave me the money but that it was my mom. I will tell you that God made sure she had the extra money and put it into her heart to ask me if I needed it. You see, I never told her I was short the money nor how much. Also, do you know that was the only time she ever asked me if I needed any money for tuition? Thank God.
I was 22 years old in the fall semester of my final year of college. I only had one more semester to go after that. I went to a career fair towards the end of that fall semster with the hopes of securing a job when I graduated after the next semester. No one was interested in me since I still had another semester of school left but I did get an internship at a company located north of Milwaukee. It was a bit of drive, about 40-45 minutes, but I was thankful for the internship. When I started working there, I found out that I had to take a full one hour unpaid lunch. I had asked if I could not take the lunch and leave an hour early so I could miss some of the traffic being that I lived south of Milwaukee. They let me for the first day or two but then told me that I can no longer do that. This wasn't a job where people really went to lunch together so I thought to myself, "Great, what am I going to do with a full hour?" Well, it only take me about ten minutes to eat a meal. Then I thought that it probably would be good to use this time to praise God. So, I got in the habit of going through the McDonald's drive through, driving a couple minutes down the road to a park & ride, eating my food and then reading Psalms for the remainder of the time until I had to get back to work. It was now the end of the fall semester and my tuition for the spring semester was due shortly. I was less nervous this time about being a little bit short on money as I now had a couple experiences where God came through everytime and it always the exact amount I needed, but I still didn't like it. Like the times before, I set my heart to seek God, read the Psalms out loud and believe with as much as was within me. The time came that just before my tuition was due, I was at work and it was payday. They handed me my check, I opened the envelope, and I noticed that there was a significant mistake that was made. They overpaid me! I immediately brought this to their attention and told them that they overpaid me. They asked me if it was okay that I just cash this check and they will deduct the overage from my next one. Are you kidding me?!?! I was calm in their presence and said, "Sure, that's no problem." I now had enough money to pay for my final year of school. Thank God.
Pro 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." I want to encourage all of you to believe God. Can not God take care of you? Psa 24:1 "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. That includes you. It also includes all the money in the world. Are you greater than God? You may say no, but if you trust in your flesh, that's what you believe in your heart. The first step is to humble yourself. The Bible is plain that the prideful are far from God. If you are lifted up in pride and think you know everything or no one can tell you anything, you will never get in the presence of God. Pro 21:4 "An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin. I also want to encourage you to read the Psalms out loud as much as possible. They are praises to God and you need to read out loud to minister faith to your heart. Rom 10:17 "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.