HIS GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR ME

"...whenever our earthly stream or any other
outer resource has dried up, it has been allowed
so we may learn that our hope and help are in
God, who made heaven and earth." - F. B. Meyer

Several days ago, while making my bed, I found myself thinking of the Scripture verses about Paul's thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-10), and how easily they could also apply to me and my longstanding financial challenges.  Just as Paul prayed for the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh, I have prayed for a financial miracle, which in my mind, would take the form of a windfall that would put me on Easy Street and in full control of my life.  And just as Paul's request for his thorn to be removed was not granted, neither was my vision of said windfall.

These thoughts surfaced again this morning when I went to church to pick up a very unexpected little card stuffed with $20 bills that an anonymous messenger of the Lord had left in the Sunday collection plate for me.  It was a very beautiful little card with a painting by one of my favorite artists, Thomas Kinkade, on the front of it, and inside, a handwritten message saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love," and signed, "Love, Father." 

On the way home, I pondered what a blessing in disguise my financial challenges have been.  Not only were they instrumental in my rescue from the very dark path I was walking along that I had been deceived into believing would lead me back to God, but they have also kept me totally dependent on the Lord, and enabled me to experience His grace in ways that I could never have experienced otherwise.
 
I never cease to marvel at the creative and unexpected ways He has provided for my needs, and even most of my wants.  I have a whole notebook filled with testimonies ranging from a check not bouncing when, in the natural, it should have, to getting a huge tip on a very small typing job; from receiving an unexpected check in the mail, to finding money in stores, parking lots, or even floating on the water as I walked along a secluded beach.  Once I found a quarter in the middle of a cabbage, and another time, in a puddle, as I stepped out of my car wondering how I was going to feed the meter.

I can't wait to see what happens next!