well, the shopping trip was SO fun last night! we ate at "the spicy pickle" and then headed for the mall. c. was having her usual struggle with herself to find the perfect thing, and i was just "along for the ride" - i neither saw nor really "needed" anything! so, the spending freeze is safe for this weekend i believe.what is extraordinary is the way God spoke to me yesterday about this offering. i think it's fairly obvious to those that have been reading that i have been struggling with thinking of a month of no "extra" purchases as a difficult thing to do. but the Lord seemed to be telling me something else when i turned to His Word yesterday.
i have a daily Bible, so each day there is a part of the old testament, new testament, a psalm and a proverb. the old testament story for yesterday was from Exodus 15, right after the israelites crossed the red sea. of course, this was the story about the manna that God supplied and the instructions He gave concerning it. it was pretty simple really. they were to look for it each day, not save a bunch of it so it would rot, not complain (!) and on saturday there would be a double portion so that they could rest on sunday. the exercise was described by the Father as a "test of their obedience." hmmmm.
then, i turned to the new testament story. this one came from matthew 22. The Lord described a parable concerning the wedding feast. in this story a king invited a chosen few to a wedding feast for his son, and when they "paid no attention" to the invitation, he ordered his servants to go out to the street and invite as many as they could, both bad and good. yep, there was a feast going on, and it was clear that missing the invitation was a classic error. because he was a KING and it was a really good party and you had an INVITATION. hmmmmm.
well, one thing is clear to me today. i am most certainly NOT missing out on anything! i have every single thing a human could ever want and need from the Lord today, as well as an invitation to a banquet too :) i'm sure He'll dress me well, sit me next to my most treasured friends, feed me a most fabulous meal, and lavish His love on me the whole time!
who could ask for more than that?
2 comments:
Wow, great post. I have been catching up on yours finally. I admire your spending fast. You're right, we really have all we need don't we. I hate that feeling like I need to buy something because after I do and the newness wears off, there is still that space to fill. I finally learned material things will never fill that space and I need to fill it with Jesus. With the spirit. And guess what? It works. Of course it's fun to splurge every now and then but Jesus always gives us what we really need. Thanks for you post today, I really needed to hear it.
Glad you and C. had fun! Someday maybe I'll tag along with you all!
Ya know what's weird. I was listening to a sermon about Matthew 22 today! I love that the King gathered up to the unclean sinners and had a party!
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