Handmaidens - Stewardship

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MORE SIGNS THAT YOU'VE HAD TOO MUCH OF THE 90s
From F. Bills
Your grandmother clogs up your e-mail inbox, asking you to send her a JPEG file of your newborn so she can create a screen saver.
You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.
Every commercial on television has a web-site address at the bottom of the screen.
You buy a computer and a week later it is out of date and sells for half the price you paid.
The concept of using real money instead of credit or debit cards is foreign to you.
Your reason for not staying in touch with family is that they do not have e-mail addresses.
You consider second-day air delivery painfully slow.
Your idea of being organized is multiple-colored Post-it notes.
You hear most of your jokes via e-mail instead of in person.
You're reading this.

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Editor's Note: God gave each of us certain resources. Like salvation itself, we neither earned nor deserve them. Oh, you may think you earned your wealth, but could you have that career had you been born to a starving mother in a third world country? Don't be fooled into believing you are the reason for your "good fortune." Without God's planning and grace, your life might have been very different!

Money Isn't Everything
Submitted by Carol Skipper of Apron Strings Devotionals

Money can buy a house
but not a home.

Money can buy a bed
but not sleep.

Money can buy a clock
but not time.

Money can buy a book
but not knowledge.

Money can buy food
but not an appetite.

Money can buy position
but not respect.

Money can buy blood
but not life.

Money can buy medicine
but not health.

Money can buy sex
but not love.

Money can buy insurance
but not safety.

You see, money is not everything.

Editor's Note: Several recent studies have shown the leading cause of stress, marital strife and feelings of self doubt is worry about finances. In a world system where people are esteemed in direct relation to their net worth, this doesn't surprise me. Christians are not exempt, it seems, for in my 30 years as a financial affairs counselor, I've worked with many believers smitten in this same way.

But is money the real problem? NO!!! Money isn't the problem, WORRY is.

Grace, Faith, Trust and Worry

It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

I believe the strongest affirmation of faith in scripture is Job saying, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15). And this in the midst of trials and griefs well beyond what most of us can imagine... Wow!

On the surface and without hesitation, I vow I feel the same as Job... I will trust God, no matter what! Yet in practice, I have found that while I believe and have no doubt in who and what my Lord is, my trust in Him is not always well demonstrated in my life. Consider the following:

In the Summer issue I wrote an article, "Househunting with God" in which I related how the Lord led us to buy specific property in Dothan, Alabama. Everything seemed rosy, and we were convinced God had placed us here and had work for us to do. Our faith and trust in Him were soaring. Then the problems began.

We were robbed. Not once. Not twice. But FOUR times. Home renovation was over budget as was everything else and we began to have money problems. Illness struck each of us several times. Finally, we began to wonder if God had really sent us here at all! We worried and prayed about it, yet God was silent on the matter...

We were so focused on our current difficulties and doubts, we let the joy and faith we had earlier experienced trickle away. We forgot to remember who God is as we began to wallow in the mire of self pity and slide down the slope of worry into the pit of distrust. Worst of all, we wondered if we had misheard God and made some awful mistake in coming to Alabama... Maybe God didn't want us here after all!

It's pretty obvious what was going on and we soon caught on to how foolish we were being. We quit praying for deliverance from our problems and asked instead that we be filled with faith and understanding, that God change us rather than our circumstances. We were hungry, longing to be filled with His righteousness, thirsty for more of Him. These prayers brought forth His teaching in a mighty way.

No longer does it matter if we have been led here by the Holy Spirit (although we are now once again quite sure we were) or if we came here "by mistake." The King of the universe has a plan for us and will use His all willing servants according to His divine will. He knew all along we would be here at this time and has promised that "...all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

Believers, we ARE called according to His purpose. He has a plan for our lives that takes in the fact that we're going to make mistakes! We already KNOW all this, so why is it so easy for us to fall prey to worry? If we know He loved us enough to endure the agony of the cross to save us, why is it so hard to trust Him to see us through the big and little trials of our daily lives? I have a theory...

Our FAITH in God and the redemptive work of Christ becomes internalized over time and is eventually part and parcel of who we are. We think of it as a spiritual thing.

TRUST is putting our faith on the line in an very temporal way. It is believing God can and will see us through anything. It is taking His promises literally and resting in perfect confidence that He'll keep every one. When we completely TRUST Him, there's no need to worry about anything at all, for no matter what happens, our loving Father is in control and it will all turn out fine.

Well then, if our faith is strong, why do we have so much trouble with the trusting part? Because it is so hard for us to understand the concept of GRACE! We live in a world in which favor must be deserved or earned in some way. From early childhood, we've been taught this is so. There are no "Free Lunches," according to the world system. We frown on "Something for Nothing" attitudes and secretly hope that those who've received undeserved benefits will somehow loose them. We don't understand grace!

Now, not fully comprehending GRACE, and knowing we are sinful and undeserving of God's favor, it's hard for us to really believe He'll take care of us. It's hard to believe we won't receive the punishment we deserve! So, when troubles pile up, instead of "Resting on the Promises," we spend sleepless nights in worry, succumb to stress and draw farther from our Redeemer.

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.
Isaiah 26:3,4

We have a God who delights in impossibilities.
Andrew Murray
**
Either He is in charge, or He is not.
Elizabeth Elliot
**
Beware of cut-and-dried theologies that reduce the ways of God to a manageable formula that keeps life safe. God often does the unexplainable just to keep us on our toes--and also on our knees.
Warren Wiersbe
**
We trust in the living God.
I Timothy 4:10

Truly, we need never worry for a thing! Worry is a sin that cuts the heart of God to the quick. See why below...

When You Worry
Author unknown
Submitted by Carol Skipper of Apron Strings Devotionals

When you worry about money, you're telling Him that He is unable to provide for His children. That although He has riches beyond belief in Heaven, He is too stingy to share them with you.

When you worry that no one understands you, you're telling Him that although He has been with you since before you were formed in the womb and has carved you into the palm of His hand, He doesn't know you.

When you worry that you will not have enough food, you're telling Him that although He rained down bread from Heaven in the desert to feed His children, you are the one He's forgotten.

When you worry that your enemies will have victory over you, you're telling God that although He has given you spiritual battle gear to defend yourself, that despite His track record of being a giant slayer, Red Sea divider, lion mouth closer and a furnace cooler, He can't handle your co-worker, your neighbor, or a former friend.

When you worry that you won't be able to do enough to earn forgiveness, you're telling Him that's okay Lord, no need for Your Son to die, I can earn my own forgiveness. Let's just act like Jesus never died, tell Him never mind He doesn't need to go to the cross.

When you worry that no one will love you, that you'll be lonely for the rest of your life, you're telling Him that His love is insufficient. That He couldn't possibly love you enough to ward away loneliness. You're saying that although He has promised life more abundantly, He was lying. That despite the fact that He started off saying that it is not good that we be alone, He's changed His mind.

When you worry and refuse to give the problem over to Him, you're telling Him that although He could create the world, He can't handle what's going on in your world, so you will. You are saying that He won't work things out, that obstacles cannot be overcome, that mountains can't be climbed, that healing cannot occur, that what is lost will not be found, that joy does not come in the morning, that He is not the God of a second chance, that the Promised Land has been swallowed up by the desert, that you have discovered the height, depth and width of His love and found it to fall short of your needs.

Think about all that you're saying to the one who loves you the most and who has all power, really think about it. Then open your hands and release what you've been holding onto. Bow down on your knees and ask Him to forgive you for doubting Him. Walk away with a peaceful heart and note the footsteps that go before you to make the crooked places straight, a way in the wilderness and water spring forth in the desert.

"Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."
Isaiah 41:10

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