Money.. a battle we cause ourself!

"The wise Man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets." Proverbs 21:20

With the economy as it is today and job loss, seems alot of people are looking for ways to cut back, change habits, etc. Myself and my family included. I can't help but think though, if we were living as the bible asks us to such as "a borrower will be slave to the lender" and "owe no man anything" would we be in the shape we are in as a country now? I think not. I can only personally speak for my household though.
So many times we have made mistakes with our finances in the five years my husband and I have been together from buying vehicles to getting an unneccessary credit to just shopping or eating out when we should have been saving for the future. We now have 3 kids at home and my husband has a son we support as well. With the expense of daycare being so high, and mainly the fact that God has called me to be at home right now, I do not work. We lost half of our income with our last child being born, such a major life change! With all that said we have been through many changes since then we have lived with family, we have wrecked vehicles, changed jobs, and gone even further into debt trying to make ends meet. Seems like we were going down a never ending spiral! This all sounds terrible but there is light at the end of the tunnel!lol  Now that I have spoken the bad I will share the good. We purchased a home back in May of 2012. There were many, many renovations that needed to be done and still do before a bank would finance this home. (We had an agreement with our seller to owner fincance until we could get the bank requirements done) Well needless to say we were running out of funds and I was runningout of patience waiting on the funds and renovations to be completed !! I had decided that if my husband would say the word we would put a for sale sign out that day ..in fact I already had the one that was here when we bough the place! But instead of rushing to the road side with the sign I called made a phone call to a wise person who I look up to to get some advice on selling. Thank God he orders our steps!!! To my surprise that phone call changed everything to do with our house issue! Instead of what I thought I would get which was advice , we recieved a miracle!! This person said ' I would hate for yall to lose it when you have done so much work, and yall got such a good deal on the house, why dont we just pay the loan off for uou?" Remember this isnt a grocery trip or a $100 loan ...this is thousands of dollars. Now tell me God was not in this!! I think so!! And not only that the loan was interest free !!!!God is so good to prepare the hearts of others for our needs when we arent even expecting!!
Since this time we have had such a different outlook on everything. We have been able to do more work in the house. We have done nothing but become more free in our finances since this happened . Little by little the rest is coming into place.  Its amazing the doors God can open and the changes God can make in lives and hearts. Dont look at your circumstances he is MUCH bigger than that..he is GOD!!

todays thought:)

James 1:26
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

my grandmothers book

I wanted to share this link. My grandmother wrote this book and just had it published a few weeks ago its called 'Believe the works' it is a book on miracles. I started it and finished it in two days..its very good!!
The link to view and order is

https://www.createspace.com/3967137

Feeling like an alien!!!

Have you ever seen an old friend or been around a group of people who didnt live for God and just felt weird? I have family and friends that arent saved and there has always been just a knowing of my beliefs and lifestyle, but today i just felt like an alien!! The bible talks about us being strangers to this world and today I felt great understanding of this scripture!! I believe God used this situation today to allow my faith in him to grow and allow me to see what he has done in me . To see the world now with a view of not being part of it was a good feeling. I would've never thought I would get to a place in my spiritual life that I could say that I felt very privileged to be on the short end of the stick as the world would call it financially, with materialistic things, and being in the midst of everyone's business! I FELT RICH!!! And BLESSED to be feeling so alienated!! I thank god for opening my eyes to see what is most important in this life and that is not things, money, looking good , or even feeling good! Emotions Lie and all of these things will feed your emotions. The joy of The Lord won't and that's what I want to be my stability in life, peace that passes all understanding!! Jesus!!! 
1 Peter 2:11-12 

Self mutilation

Self mutilation is more than a physical thing! I have learned that we sometimes self mutilate our own spirit man! Lord forgive us, for we do not realize that whether it be in works( religion) or by ignorance we are taking you out of the realm of being all that you are Lord, and setting ourselves up as our own justifier or God! This is so dangerous! We cannot possibly be all of what God has called us to be and self mutilate ourselves daily! The more I study the word and various teachings the more I am seeing that this world is so consumed with people who are deceived into thinking that we can do something to make ourselves more holy...in Romans it gives great discussion on grace and freedom from the law. I'm definitely not a scholar so I won't go and try to sketch it out but I do know that we are not to sin so that grace may abound. But at the same time we are to not hold our head down and be consumed with condemnation if we do mess up. Romans 8:1 for therefor now there is no condemnation in those in Christ Jesus. So staying between the boundaries of these lessons Paul teaches should free us from self mutilation due to works and free us from the bondage of making ourselves responsible for choosing what is 'good' and what is not. Let god be our justifier!

From the Abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh!

How many times have we answered without gentleness or just blurted out something and ended up in the middle of a mess!? Unfortunately, I can say many, many times. Today I just wanted to share these scriptures that have encouraged me to place a close watch on my heart and where it is because without the right heart our words cannot be right, which in turn can produce a harsh word and stir up anger and wrong feelings. Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 17:27 He that has knowledge restrains his words,and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Isaiah 32:6 For the fool speaks folly, his mind is busy with evil: He practices ungodliness and spreads error concerning the Lord; the hungry he leaves empty and from the thirsty he withholds water. Luke 6:45 the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

I wanna be selfless!

Self less What does it mean? To deny ourselves of things we want? To take ourself to an extreme and not be who we are? NO in the bible Christ says to follow him we should deny ourselves & take up our cross. I do not believe he ever intended for us to not have our own God given talents and abilities or to have different personality traits. Some people say they can't live for God because they can't be themselves, well that is a LIE! God wants us to be unique because we are fearfully and wonderfully made! He had every person in mind before we were created ! I believe to deny ourselves means to deny our selfish, sin nature desires that do not bear fruit. We all have desires at times whether it be monetarty gain, flat out selfish wants, or just simple things like wanting time to yourself when you have obligations to your family. The bible tells us we have died to this nature once we became alive in Christ. This being known to deny ourselves in my opinion would be to deny that sin nature that lingers and awaits to be used on a daily basis. From the biggest to the smallest temptation we are responsible for remaining selfless,)

When we lose sight of why we are here...

Isaiah 43:7 Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him. There are many variations of people on earth. Young,old, mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings, and the list could go on and on. Of all these different groups of people I believe each and every person at some time in their life questions what they were meant for. What their purpose is and usually it's when things aren't going the way we think they should. Do you ever sit and get depressed thinking, what I am here for? Is this all life has for me? Is this what I am gonna be doing forever? I DO! I think this is a way Satan comes in to make us become self-centered. If we are absolutely the most boring, no excitement at all christian there is we have still a reason for exsisting and it has NOTHING to do with us! Wow! what a thought!! haha We aren't here to gain careers, or make money, or go to school, or have spouses, or make friends??? No, acutually we were not made especially for that! Yes, God blesses us with all these things but really we were made for his glory, for his pleasure! That is sometimes far from our minds when we think about things we aren't getting our way or looking back in life and thinking about what we could have, or should have done differently. Truth is God knew every step, every breath, and every mistake, even down to every hair on your head before you were concieved. So today I am challenging myself, and ask you to do the same. Look outside your self-pity circle, or list of things you feel you have to acheive and just thank God he created you and thank him for ALLOWING you to have those blessings that we sometimes make into curses because we put them before our primary purpose of being! Have a blessed day and give thanks bc it's not about us, IT'S ABOUT HIM!!!!