I’m a kitesurfer (and originally a surfer and windsurfer).
Kitesurfing is an expression sport. Riders in a competition try to execute different “tricks”, which are like a kind of move or motion. You see this in gymnastics, ice skating, skateboarding, motocross, BMX, etc.
God was teaching me to understand His ways of provision are not the world’s ways. Each dimension of these differences help us understand how to trust God, even to rely and ask for miracles. This is not the ways of the world, nor Wall Street. The ways of the financial world are black and white. Accounting. Spreadsheets. Money in, money out. The equation has to balance. Otherwise it does not compute. Or, you are “in the red” (to say you are at a loss or in the negative).
Think about it. In the bible we see some crazy stories of miraculous provision. In fact, we see so many times where God did things without money. Here is just the first 10 examples I can recall out of the bible (there are 100s of examples)…
- Manna from heaven for 40 years in the desert wanderings
- Water from the rock
- Jesus fed the 5000. And the 4000. Without money. Multiplying the boy’s fishes and loaves.
- Elijah was fed by ravens and drank the stream for “many days”
- Elisha multiplied the widow’s oil to pay all her family’s debts
- Abraham got a Ram in the thicket to replace the sacrifice of Isaac
- The Garden of Eden
- Noah’s ark and all the animals 2×2
- 7-days of creation
- Peter’s coin in the fish’s mouth
When we meditate on this, and all the miracles of God, we can see the following truth…
God can do things with or without money
This is also why God says you can’t serve money and try to serve Him. When we serve money, we believe the lie that God can only help us with our financial needs with money. But that is patently false. Let’s break it down.
A related lie is that the only way out of debt is to pay it off by earning more money. If we just work hard enough, make enough money, then our debts will be paid and our needs will be met. This is a trap. This is a slavery. You work as hard as Israelite slaves did in Egypt. Making bricks without straw.
There has got to be a better way. You know what? There is. Trusting God can lead to so many other doors of provision being opened. Let’s have a quick list of the “tricks” God can use to provide for us…
- Debt forgiveness
- Gifts (groceries, housing, vehicles)
- Miracles (gold, coins, teeth, supersized vegetables)
- The land (fruit, vegetables, animals, wood)
- Settlement of debts; court judgments in our favor
- Our “enemies” paying us – the giants for our bread
- Surprise checks and gift cards in the mailbox
- Barter – exchange this for that
When we ran out of money and exhausted all of our credit lines, the creditors started coming after us. We had never been through this before. We always had plenty of money. We had always tithed. We had always given.
Now, when we couldn’t pay our mortgage, rent, credit card bills, the “machinery” came after us. Customer service people pestered us daily for “can you just send us $200” and such asking for anything over and over again. They were trying to get blood from a stone. We were flat out of money! Part of this was a guilt response – no wait, I’m a responsible person. I pay on time. I always pay back. But the people calling us where just cogs in the machine. They had no authority to help us (reduce the debt for example), and were actually being compensated to extract something, anything from us. The “let’s set up a payment plan” is a classic tactic.
The Lord showed me, don’t worry about satisfying them. I’ve got you. I’ve put you in this position to teach you new ways of trusting Me.