Isn't God Wonderful! A Brief Testimony of God's Providence

Every once in a while someone will express their thanks to me for something I've done as a pastor by giving me some money. Depending on the circumstances sometimes I accept the gift and keep it. More often, however, I simply turn and give the same amount of money as an anonymous gift to the church.

Yesterday, someone with a legitimate financial need dropped by the church to see if I could help them. The church has given me a small discretionary fund that I can draw on as I see a need but sometimes I simply give (not loan) them something from my own wallet. This is what I chose to do yesterday. At the time I could not figure out why I felt so good about being so generous to this person but somehow it just seemed the right thing to do. The person wept with gratitude. The church they attended (not in Mililani) had said they couldn't help and there was a strong feeling of hopelessness and despair. My gift reaffirmed the person's faith in God and I was asked to pray with them before they left. In any case, I told them that the gift was not from me, but from God.

I had also told the person that often I do say "no" to people when they ask for money. I could not, however, explain why I felt so compelled to say "yes" to them on this particular occasion.

This morning, while thinking about this, I suddenly understood. In the past two weeks I had received "thank you" gifts from two different people/churches for things I had done for them. I considered whether to give the money to the church or keep it. For some reason (that made me uncomfortable at the time), almost on impulse, I decided to keep the money. Now I know why. The amount of the two gifts was exactly what the person had needed yesterday and was the exact amount of money I had given them. The money had turned out to be God's after all!

God is good...all the time! All the time...God is good! Amen!