“Here is what I need from you Brittany, come up with two budgets
for the job. A budget that consists of the bare essentials and a second
budget that would cover what you would like to get done to the room. In
the meantime, I will talk to the elders about this idea and feel them
out. But you know that we really have no money set aside for anything
like this, so I cannot promise anything.”
A week later she presented me with the two numbers. In her
estimation, it would cost $2,000.00 to do the bare essentials to the room and
$3,000 to do what she would like to do to the room to make it more comfortable
and safe.
“Brittany, here is what we decided as the elders of Midtown.
We do not want to make an executive decision on this but want you to make the
decision for us. Over the past year and a half, we, as elders, have been
praying for God to take care of our needs around the church, and he has done
so. Therefore we know without a doubt that the Lord will guide you in
this decision. If he wants you to do this project then the money will
come in. So we want you to pray for one week on this and ask God to
either change your mind on the project and tell you that it doesn’t need to be
done, or pray that he will provide the money. Regarding the two
numbers, we know that in God’s economy $2,000 is no different than
$3,000. So we want to forget about the $2,000 and lock in on praying for
$3,000 to be provided for the job if the Lord wants you to move forward.
Therefore, next week when we meet, I want to hear God has guided you in this,
and if you say we are moving forward then we will move forward and trust that
the Lord will provide the $3,000.00 to accomplish this job.”
“Ok” And she went off to pray for a week. In the meantime,
we prayed that the Lord would reveal himself to her and to us in a marvelous
way in this matter.
One week later, she came to our staff meeting and reported.
“Greg, I believe we can skip out on a couple of the small projects, but through
prayer, I believe God is leading me to move forward on this.” On my lap
at the time was a stack of mail that was just brought in by one of my
deacons. I typically don’t multi task during our meetings, but this time
I was. As we discussed the certainty of her feelings about the job
(asking questions to discern God from fleshly desires, which is easy to do when
you spend time in prayer and have a corresponding peace that follows your
prayer life), I ripped into an envelope from an attorney’s office. I was
expecting junk mail, but instead I received a letter that was sent by the hand
of God. Let me summarize it to you.
Dear Midtown,
“It was determined that the claim you filed and the deductible you
paid regarding the flooding incident a couple of years ago was not your
fault. Therefore, please sign these documents and return them immediately
for a refund of your $3000.00 deductible.” If I didn’t have arm rests in
my chair I would have fallen out as I was laughing so hard (this is how I
respond when God reveals Himself in a mighty way). I couldn’t believe
what I was reading as it showed Brittany what the power of prayer can do.
You see, as her pastor, I also spent the week praying. I
prayed for something slightly different. My prayer went like this, “God,
don’t let me down here. I have challenged our Children’s Ministry
Director to pray to you and to receive your guidance in the job. I am
totally expecting you to move in an incredible way here. I am a little
nervous that I am acting foolishly and I will have to explain to her next week
why you didn’t answer her. Please do something great for her.”
And he did, not only for her, but for me! As much as
Brittany was able to see the goodness of God, I also got to see it and learned
a great deal of God’s faithfulness through it.
She prayed for God to either change her thinking or provide the
money while I prayed for God to reveal himself in a mighty way. He
answered both of those prayers in a way that reminded us of his faithfulness.
Philippians 4 says that my God will provide for your needs according to His
riches in glory. Amen.
