God's Prompting

We attended a youth ministry meeting this Sunday and found out that between now and Christmas there were many youth events that have costs attached. The Wednesday night Bible study the youth are beginning was $10 a book. There is a youth conference the youth are attending later this month, which is somewhere around $45 per student, plus another $30-40 or more that we need to send for meals... and that doesn't even include any spending money for miscellaneous things. Then the Dare2Share student conference is coming up, and they want us to pay for it now... it is also around the same cost. As you can see, it adds up quickly, and then we have to take it times 3 (because we have 3 youth).... that's a lot of money.

The kids can work and raise some money on their own, but their being able to make that much money so quickly was doubtful. For Mark and I, it is hard to know what to do.... even if we have the money to pay for the trip in our checking, we don't know how long Mark will be unemployed, and that causes to think the money we do have in our checking should only be used for house payment, insurance, food.... We doubt whether we should be spending money on youth trips, yet the youth trips are an important part of their spiritual growth. It's hard to know the right thing to do. I left the youth meeting with a knot in my stomach. I told no one but God about my concerns. No more than an hour later a woman came up to me and pressed some money in my hand and said, "Use this how you want, but it should be enough to send your kids on the next youth trip and pay for the Bible study materials".

It still amazes me when this happens. One of the most incredible things is knowing that God must nudge a person's heart, and they respond immediately to that prompting. It is such an example to me, as to how I should respond when God prompts me to do something. How many times have I failed to do what God asked me to do and miss out on blessing someone? It really sickens me to think that there may have been someone praying about an issue and God prompted me to do something.... and I didn't react immediately, then ended up forgetting about it... Did God have to go to another beliver to answer that prayer because I failed? I truly pray that I will never, ever allow that to happen.

In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing. (2 Timothy 2:20-21 The Message)