As most of you know, I have been struggling with money over the past couple of months. Because of that, debts have stacked up and any and all money that comes in goes into that to be able to pay them off as well as maintain my monthly rent and food and every other cost. I thought I would be smart and plan a bit of a budget and I figured it'd be good to have a some money on the side for entertainment. Thinking along those lines, I had found a cheap airline ticket to go out to the Netherlands and visit my girlfriend, Maartje, for awhile. I reveled in this thought! But I know that it would be a smart thing to consult with my leader at the YWAM base that I am staying in and see what he thought of me going out to the Netherlands to spend some time with Maartje. And he suggested what I already knew deep down, "All of the money that God gives you should go into paying off your debts and keeping up on the monthly rent." So I was kind of down in the dumps...
Bruno, one of my very close friends/leader at the base, came up to me and spent some time talking and praying with me. That helped, but I was still sad and moping around a bit. So I decided to take what Bruno had said to me to heart and apply it to my life: "If you honour God, He will honour you." God had placed Junior, the base leader, over my life for a reason and I should listen to his council. So I did. I told Yahweh, "Okay, I will listen to you and your guidance. I want what you want for my life, not my own desires." So I gave it over to Him. What happened next it actually caught me off guard...
Maartje had spent a night with a couple of her good friends from her university and they were talking about having a triple date with all of their boyfriends. Well Maartje brought up how I was in Spain and we didn't have any money to bring me over to the Netherlands. You know what her friends said? "We'd love to pay for his ticket to come out here!" Wow! I really didn't expect that. It caught me completely off guard.
So here I am, in the Netherlands, typing this up, telling you all of this. Now you might be telling yourself, "That wasn't God, that was just Maartje's friends being nice." And you are right, it is her friends being nice. But I give all the credit to Yahweh. For I believe that He is the writer of all that is good in this world and that the devil is the father of all lies. These are my beliefs and you don't have to agree with me, but if you want to explore a life with your Creator who loves you and all He wants is to know you and draw you in close and embrace you, seek and you will find. Taste and see, for the Lord is good.
I also want to apologize on behalf of the church and any other Christian or follower of Yahweh that has hurt anyone reading this. Whoever you may be, God is not defined by His people. Come and know Him personally and you shall find that He is good and He loves you and no matter how far you run, He will be chasing after you.
Thank you for reading and know that I love you!
Jack
