God is More

At the beginning of each new year, I ask God to give me a verse on which to focus. It’s not some mystical, “Lord, I’m going to open the Bible and point. Place my finger on my verse for the year.”

No. It’s not that at all. In fact, sometimes it takes me quite a while to figure out what verse God wants for me that year.

Last year, my verse was: Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10 NIV

God asked me to stop trying so hard to control everything and let Him do what He is going to do without me pushing and shoving. I was weeks in to this year and still had no idea which verse to claim. So I prayed and asked for wisdom.

When I started my t-shirt fundraiser, I had no idea how much money I would raise. The site told me if I sold 75 shirts, I would raise about $350. I wasn’t sure if I could sell that many, but I thought it was worth the try. My trip to the DR was $1600. Three hundred-fifty dollars would certainly help.

As the two weeks of the fundraiser passed, I stood in amazement every day of the number of people buying shirts, but also of the number of people who felt led to donate. The night the fundraiser was supposed to end, I stayed up late watching television with Alan.

Sometime after midnight, Alan headed up to bed, and I came to shut down my laptop and check to see the final number of shirts sold and money raised. What I saw had me laughing out loud.

$1601 raised
115 shirts sold

I couldn’t help but laugh because only God can do something like that. Immediately, God impressed on my heart what my verse needed to be this year – Ephesians 3:20.

I love the New Living Translation version of this verse.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Ephesians 3:20 NLT

God could have done $1600, but He did more. That $1 more wasn’t just a dollar for a dollar’s sake. It was God saying, “You can not put limits on Me.”

But friends, that wasn’t all.

Other family and friends mailed in money to One Vision. God provided even more money!

Alan and I sat down to discuss what the actual costs would be for everything and what we had left over.

One Vision was also trying to raise money for sponsorships for the women. They didn’t want the women to have to pay for the conference, so they were asking people like you and me to pay their way. We decided that whatever money we had above what I needed for the trip would go for sponsorships. From our calculations, we could also pay for 31 women to attend the conference.

Without telling her why, I asked our team leader how many more sponsorships were needed, and she emailed me the next day with the answer. Want to guess?

30

They needed support for 30 more women and guess how many God provided? 31! Because He can always do more. There was that number one again.

I share all this to tell you if God says He will provide, Jehovah Jireh will do just that. I don’t know what your need it today, but God does.

Let’s just take a minute to give Him the glory and honor He deserves.

I’m going to share this verse again – because it’s just that good. Think about how this can apply to your own life.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Ephesians 3:20 NLT

 

Enjoy the slideshow! If you still haven’t sent me a picture, I still would love to have it. Keep them coming. Enjoy!

Everyday Missionaries on PhotoPeach