Category Archives: Financial Struggles

God’s Wish List

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Every Tuesday morning I meet with several other women for a scheduled prayer time around what we call an altar. Actually it’s just a Formica-topped table, but to us it represents a place where God is present in powerful ways.

Table

During our time together we claim his promise to hear our prayers and then one-by-one hand him 200+ requests, each one with a name and situation connected to it. After everything has been covered, nearly 3 hours has passed.

Faithful prayer can be hard work.

But God steadily rewards that work with glimpses of the wonders he’s performing, some the culmination of years of prayer, others a total surprise party. We’ve watched him heal terminal diseases, reconcile warring spouses, save lost souls, rearrange careers, shelter refugees, sell houses, and much, much more.

All of us have mental wish lists of what we’d like to see happen within our families, our schools, our friendships, the government, and our world. We want harmony in relationships, financial security, satisfying careers, and global peace…. for starters.

None of us has trouble knowing what we want, but what does God want? Sometimes we have trouble being sure of that. Although he invites us to bring our concerns, he puts restrictions on which ones he’ll answer in the affirmative.

Scripture says, “This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)

Big “if”.

He’s saying, “If you ask according to God’s will, you’ll get what you ask for. Outside of that, no guarantees.”

For example, we can pray for a raise at work, but God doesn’t promise a yes. It’s possible he will give it, but he might prefer instead to produce spiritual riches through the experience of financial hardship.

As our little band of praying women thought about all this, we decided the only way to be sure we weren’t wasting time on Tuesday mornings was to pray “according to his will,” and thankfully Scripture lets us know what that is.

20 topics

So we chose 400 verses from the Bible, 20 for each of 20 different topics, each one in accordance with God’s will for all people. We put them on cards stored in mugs, ready for pulling during prayer times. Based on the needs, we ask for:

  • Perseverance
  • Discernment
  • Faithfulness
  • Gratitude
  • Hope
  • Reconciliation
  • Obedience
  • Forgiveness
  • Redemption
  • Love
  • Patience
  • Healing
  • Peace
  • Wisdom
  • Strength
  • Protection
  • Salvation
  • Joy
  • Servant-hood
  • Trust

And because God wants to develop these things in all of us, he faithfully says yes.

“The Lord said…. I am watching over my word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:12)

Money Talk

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This afternoon when Nelson came in, we sat in the living room chatting while twilight gradually enveloped the neighborhood. As often happens, our talk gravitated to Scripture, and he mentioned an interesting prayer he’d read this morning from Proverbs 30: “Give me neither poverty nor riches.”

Money!

Question: Who in their right mind would pray against receiving riches?

It’s easy to nod in agreement when we hear the request against poverty. But riches too? Is that necessary?

We’ve all heard that money corrupts, and as much as we fantasize about having more of it, in our hearts we know it’s true. Nelson and I talked about several people we knew, both famous and not so much, who were ruined by riches. Of course most of us haven’t had the opportunity.

“Try us,” we say to God. “We could handle it.”

But once we had it, could we say with Scripture, “I don’t have to keep it”?

If we find ourselves loving money so much we can’t happily agree to surrender it, we’re opening ourselves to all kinds of trouble. The Bible says so. Money itself isn’t evil, just loving it is, The problem is, we know what wonderful things it could do for us. That’s why it’s so difficult to pray the wisdom of Proverbs: “Don’t give me riches.”

Nelson has long admired a Christian man named George Mueller (Muller) who was wild and wicked in his youth but then changed dramatically after committing his life to Christ at the age of 23. He took the Bible literally for the next 70 years and believed God meant it when he said nothing was impossible. Mueller became a preacher, missionary, educator, and the manager of multiple orphanages throughout the 1800’s.

George Mueller

He kept detailed records of every orphan and every penny given to support them and their schools, and those accountings can still be inspected today. He cared for over 10,000 children full time and educated more than 120,000 in his lifetime. Without asking anyone but God to meet their monetary needs, the Lord sent the equivalent of 9 million dollars through his hands.

And that’s the most interesting thing about this man who kept a healthy distance between himself and any love of money. His massive ministry needs were consistently met only by his asking God to pay the bills. And when too much came in, Mueller gave it away.

God isn’t any different today than he was in Mueller’s day, and each of us can rely on him for our provision. So why don’t we?

Nelson and I agreed that although we’re reluctant to pray Proverbs 8:30, Mueller had no problem with it and actually based his life on it: “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” And it worked out great for him.

“One man considers himself rich, yet has nothing [to keep permanently]; another man considers himself poor, yet has great [and indestructible] riches.” (Proverbs 13:7, Amplified)