Shower of Blessings

Deuteronomy 11:27
"the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today."


Proverbs 10:22
"The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it."


Isaiah 44:3
"For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants."


     The last few months have been amazing. The Lord has continued to pour out his blessings all over Meagan and I. We are so undeserving until it hurts, but God reminds us time after time that he will never leave us hanging. I used to think that the more synonyms for Jesus that I used as I praying, then the more God would bless me. I don't think I ever really thought that exact thought, but that is just an example of how I ran MY Christianity. 


     I had this idea of God that was totally off base. I would avoid sin as much as I thought that I could get away with so that God wouldn't punish me too bad...WHAT? Punish? Yes, that is how I viewed God, like I was going to get grounded from his blessings and grace if I lied to many times in one day. The Bible says God chose the foolish things in this world...he must have picked me in the top ten then. 


     There is something that I really want to talk about, but before I do I just wanted to share something that God revealed to 3 or 4 times in the last month of my Bible study. For all those seminary folks out there....yes I said 3 or 4 times because if there isn't a bush on fire telling me stuff then he must make it clear to me, and without fail he always does.


     I was always asked God, even after I was truly saved, I would ask him why I had to be slung around and thrown in the mud until I was in such a dark place that I wanted to die? Why me God? I remember asking one time "God, why do so many of my friends have it all together and I am just barely making it?" Little did I really know...NO ONE has it all together.


     In Luke 7: 41-50 Jesus is telling Simon of two men who each owed money to a lender, one owed 50 bucks (paraphrase obviously) and the other 500. He tells him that the lender forgave both debts and then goes on to ask him which one would be more grateful. And it was that "AH HAH" moment when God revealed to me that it took everything that I went through to get me to become as grateful as I am. I will never go back to the things of this world. Why would I choose pain over promise or burdens over blessings?


     I will step out from behind the pulpit now. I really want to take a little space and just sing my wife's praises. She is maturing in to such a submissive woman of God. I don't mean submissive like "Meagan, do the dishes then rub my back", I mean biblical stuff here, she honor's her commitment to our marriage daily on top of honoring God in all that she does. She is such an amazing person and I daily look up to her and am so thankful for her friendship. I am so thankful that she has chosen to live in obedience to God's calling with me. It is a daily adventure to see what trials and triumphs God will bring us.


     Not long after I started working Meagan and I started talking about her going back to work. She somewhat wanted to and some extra income would be nice to have. So, she started doing all the things she needed to do in order to teach in Texas and began applying for jobs. About a month into applying for jobs that she was over-qualified for and not getting any kind of feedback she came to me with something that God had shown true in her life. At that time she was doing a little painting for fun and making a tad bit of spending money. She told me that God had called her to use her ability to paint, that HE HAD GIVEN HER, and that he would provide for us using her talents, God-given talents. 

     Within the first month of full time painting she had received more business than either one of us really even believed possible. We were being blessed from every angle. We thought, hmm this is neat, God is blessing us with this for a few weeks. We were wrong Meagan's business keeps growing and growing and we keep getting blessed abundantly. It is so amazing to see how Meagan's obedience to God's call not only blesses us just enough, but our cup runs over. People don't just pay for Meagan's paintings, they pay extra, not because we ask for it, and we certainly don't expect it, but because Meagan is obedient to the call God showers us daily. Something (just a side note that one of my mentor's shared with me, he said 'something' was another name for God, so when someone says "something" told me to do it...) something is put on peoples hearts to just bless my family and it brings great joy to my life. Especially when I know that we do not have it all together yet, we still struggle at times financially and spiritually and these blessings are just a way for God to say "relax you two, give me your troubles, keep seeking me so that I may pour out more and more blessings in your life." So that is what we do, we long for him and lift his name up. Meagan and I try to always preach the gospel without using any words. 


     We are so blessed that God chose us. All we have to do is passionately seek him and he will fill us with the anointing of The Spirit.