It’s always interesting to watch God work. I mean, we “know” he does amazing things, at least we always say we know it, but it seems far less often that we actually step out in faith enough to witness it. Last week was a small reminder of that for me.
Human nature seems to drive people to chose the path that is easiest and most comfortable, and to leave those which are difficult and seemingly unpleasant until there are no other options. For me it appears that one of the most reliable ways of determining what God wants me to do is simply to look at the things I’ve been avoiding — usually those are exactly the things He wants me to do. Call it the Jonah syndrome if you like. In this case the thing that I was avoiding was asking people, one on one, face to face, to support me financially. I hate asking people for money; and even though I know that I’m not asking them to give me money, but to give money to God, and His work, part of me still feels like I’m asking for myself.
So, naturally, I did what most any human would do to try to raise support: whatever seemed to be the most comfortable. I wrote letters, sent out little cards, set up a website, created a Facebook group, spoke in front of church and wrote Newsletters. All stuff that is necessary, beneficial, and helpful; all things I will continue to do. In fact God has been bringing in a steady, though small,stream of supporters through these methods. But the one thing I didn’t want to do was call someone up, ask them if I could meet with them and invite them to support me. And since I didn’t want to do that, I didn’t… until last week.
Last week I met with five of my closest friends that had not yet started to support me. I talked to them on the phone, or sent them an email, made an appointment, shared about what I was going to do, and asked them to support me financially. All five of them said yes. To put that in perspective, I previously had seven financial supporters, after roughly six months of support raising. In addition to those five, God brought two additional supporters that I didn’t talk with. That means that this month God doubled the number of supporters I have, and it looks likely that my percentage of support will also have doubled by the end of the month. And to make things even better, I actually enjoyed getting the chance to share one on one with my friends where God was leading me, and was incredibly encouraged to see their enthusiastic responses.
God is good; He is faithful to reward us when we place Him first and humbly obey Him, He encourages us when we are discouraged, He causes us to rejoice at the most unexpected times. I have over 10% of my needed support! Look what God has done!