“When the battle is raging ask God to search your heart for anything that is causing Him pain.”
I haven’t been posting for awhile; I’ve been busy with my class assignments. There is so much reading and writing still to be done so I won’t be posting regularly. But this morning as I was out walking and listening to my tapes from the She Speaks Conference, I listened to the tape “Preparing For The Battlefield Through Prayer” by Luann Prater. On the CD she made the above comment in reference to getting the splinters of sin out of our lives.
Her comment had nothing to do with the “Battle of the Bailout” that is brewing in congress, but when I heard her say those words I was reminded of something I had been tossing around in my head in regard to the Wall Street fiasco.
With this financial crisis looming I’m sure most of us are down on our knees asking for God’s help. This morning on one of the news shows I heard an analyst say how much this may affect people’s pensions. He said, “Retired or nearly retired people who haven’t done anything wrong, may be hard hit. In fact, he said, they have done every thing right by saving for retirement.
That’s people like me. I began to wonder what I would do if tomorrow I find that my pension is kaput and my savings gone? Could I find a job when Michigan’s economy is already in the dumpster? How many more people will be pounding the pavement looking for work if we bottom out?
As I thought of the possibility of pennilessness, God reminded me of the millions of people that have been living with that financial situation for a long time. People thru a series of hard luck have lost homes, and jobs. Peple who feed their families from what they find in the dumpster, who live in their car or cardboard box. What if instead of fighting for a job, people like me start fighting over the scraps of food others throw away? While I could probably live a long time on my stored up fat, the thought of it made me shiver.
When I heard Luann’s comment about asking God to show me what is hurting him, I couldn’t help but think about those people who aren’t worried about what happens on Wall Street because they have no credit to go bad, no house, no pension, and no savings to lose-no food. But us…we have much to lose, because we have so much!
I wondered how many of us "doing the right thing" Americans have hurt God by padding our savings to insure a cushy retirement instead of giving more to help the poor. Not just the millionaire/billionaires that Main Street keeps pointing fingers at, but each and everyone of us who has "stored treasures" things we are scared we may lose.
Does God’s heart hurt when so many of us keep running the tab up to keep buying newer and better for the sake of having something newer and better, instead of giving to someone who can’t afford anything? Does it break his heart when we don’t trust him enough to provide after we have shared all of what rightfully belongs to him?
I haven’t been posting for awhile; I’ve been busy with my class assignments. There is so much reading and writing still to be done so I won’t be posting regularly. But this morning as I was out walking and listening to my tapes from the She Speaks Conference, I listened to the tape “Preparing For The Battlefield Through Prayer” by Luann Prater. On the CD she made the above comment in reference to getting the splinters of sin out of our lives.
Her comment had nothing to do with the “Battle of the Bailout” that is brewing in congress, but when I heard her say those words I was reminded of something I had been tossing around in my head in regard to the Wall Street fiasco.
With this financial crisis looming I’m sure most of us are down on our knees asking for God’s help. This morning on one of the news shows I heard an analyst say how much this may affect people’s pensions. He said, “Retired or nearly retired people who haven’t done anything wrong, may be hard hit. In fact, he said, they have done every thing right by saving for retirement.
That’s people like me. I began to wonder what I would do if tomorrow I find that my pension is kaput and my savings gone? Could I find a job when Michigan’s economy is already in the dumpster? How many more people will be pounding the pavement looking for work if we bottom out?
As I thought of the possibility of pennilessness, God reminded me of the millions of people that have been living with that financial situation for a long time. People thru a series of hard luck have lost homes, and jobs. Peple who feed their families from what they find in the dumpster, who live in their car or cardboard box. What if instead of fighting for a job, people like me start fighting over the scraps of food others throw away? While I could probably live a long time on my stored up fat, the thought of it made me shiver.
When I heard Luann’s comment about asking God to show me what is hurting him, I couldn’t help but think about those people who aren’t worried about what happens on Wall Street because they have no credit to go bad, no house, no pension, and no savings to lose-no food. But us…we have much to lose, because we have so much!
I wondered how many of us "doing the right thing" Americans have hurt God by padding our savings to insure a cushy retirement instead of giving more to help the poor. Not just the millionaire/billionaires that Main Street keeps pointing fingers at, but each and everyone of us who has "stored treasures" things we are scared we may lose.
Does God’s heart hurt when so many of us keep running the tab up to keep buying newer and better for the sake of having something newer and better, instead of giving to someone who can’t afford anything? Does it break his heart when we don’t trust him enough to provide after we have shared all of what rightfully belongs to him?
I have always heard that God takes care of our needs not our greeds. Do God’s simple provisions seem meaningless to us because we already have way more than we need?
The lesson of what happened in the dessert when the Israelites stored up more manna then their daily allotment is a reminder to all of us about greed. It tends to stink after a while.
The lesson of what happened in the dessert when the Israelites stored up more manna then their daily allotment is a reminder to all of us about greed. It tends to stink after a while.
2 comments:
Good Post Luanne,
I often think of different things that we learned at "She Speaks"
and I agree with this statement so much..
" I so wish we would put that same urgency and passion into helping the poor. Maybe we wouldn't be in this mess!"
You are sooooooo right!
Sweet Blessings,
DeeDee
Wow. My cousin has profound thoughts. I can't wait to read more.
Times today are difficult. My son was having trouble making ends meet. Heck, there was no chance of the ends EVER meeting in fact. I'm not one that has padded my retirement, so I couldn't help any more financially. I was so happy to be able to offer my roof. Other cultures, it's very natural to have several generations under one roof. It's looking more and more like we're headed that way. It could be a very good thing.
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