My wife and I have always been a bit skeptical of anything that might hint of “prosperity-theology,” but were very convicted by George’s messages. We’ve been fairly faithful givers, but typically of no more than 10% of net……….the lesson series convinced us during one of the lessons to sign the card with the intention of upping our tithe to 10% of gross, but we were pretty much immediately intimidated later that day as we reviewed the ramifications to the budget line-items. We were sweating over the details of just how we could pull this off……after all, we have a girl in College, and we were continuing to search for a job for Adriana to replace a significant loss of income when we moved to the Atlanta area.
I continued to think about the commitment with some doubts throughout the week…….however, we were overwhelmed later that very week when we received a bonus from work that was unexpectedly generous, perhaps twice as much as we were expecting………..the bonus really made us feel that the Lord was directly blessing us, and gave us the comfort to proceed with our pledge. We were also looking for a way to make a significant gift for a special need presented by one of the missionary families we have supported for years, and were now provided a way of doing exactly what George was talking about in his final lesson, “giving extravagantly” to a cause we felt strongly about.
Just this week, Adriana received a generous job offer for a position that she really had been praying about, by far the most attractive of the three positions she had interviewed for. She starts tomorrow!!
As the new series regarding “Living Scared” addresses our most typical fears, we’re just feeling really blessed financially right now as we made this commitment just before Christmas………
Once could say that the timing of these events is just a coincidence………….whether it is or not, it’s a tremendously encouraging time for us to feel the Lord is providing for us as we step out in faith…….
Matthew and Adriana Stanley
