The LAST Dollar
Some may never see it.
And, yet, others have held it in their hand.
Deciding what to do with it
Save it?
Sow it?
Spend it on WHAT?
Some may call "buckets" of money their "last" as they grow low, while still counting on a "safe" cushion tucked away in another area.
And many others in the world,
Maybe not as many in certain areas of my country,
But certainly all over the world,
This is a reality.
There are LAST Dollars.
Yet there is LASTING TRUTH to stake our live on:
"I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." (Psalm 37:25)
Are you a parent?
Or...step back to remember...
Would a GOOD Daddy ever not feed his child?
Forget to give him dinner?
Even if it is a simple one?
Would he give him a rock instead
of BREAD?
or a snake as a cruel substitution??
OF COURSE NOT!!
So it is with our GOOD FATHER.
(Baby David in the Arms of Daddy)
The other day,
I held a last dollar, for our family, in my hand.
Honestly, these are sacred moments.
Times when the reality of Faith, and a Real Father who cares and provides, and the Words of my heart meeting up with the shelves of my pantry all meet together.
So what do you do with your last dollar??
We took it to prayer.
We had just packed up lunch “found’ from that pantry and sent the kids off to school.
And then, we went up stairs, closed the door to our room,
Knelt on the floor with that little dollar in our hand ,
And we prayed.
It was worship that flowed out, and Trust,
Just like how a little child could sing on her parent’s lap in the middle of a storm raging outside,
So we just Trusted, and Listened, and asked for exactly what we needed from Father.
We asked for specifics.
We asked for “sudden lies”.
We did some crying and some crying out on the hard wood floor of our room, in the soft morning light,
And we decided to stand in trustful expectancy.
Richard, headed off to minister in the Prayer Room, still with our Father.
And I remained at home, readying for the day folding clothing, last dollar in my pocket.
In this moment, God spoke inside me,
“Go spend your last dollar on Manna.”
And I thought, “That’s an odd request – I’m obeying!”
I knew exactly where He was referring, a food ministry for Missionaries, close to our Ministry work here.
And so, I invited my college daughter, got our baby in the car seat , and brought our last dollar over there.
Stepping out on a “strange little” prompting from God is always a little weird feeling.
And I just pushed through and holding out at the front desk of the food ministry my tiny offering and saying,
“This may sound odd to hear, but I need to testify. This morning God told me to spend my last dollar on Manna. And here it is. Please take it.”
As I spoke, God’s Gentle Presence just hugged me~ it was a sacred moment giving that little, last piece of currency away.
And I was so aware I was not without – THE MOMENT it left my hand.
“Oh NO! You keep it,” the kind man who leads the food ministry said, and I was just going to tell you that we have a whole BOX of produce we can give you today, and lots of bread, and dairy. Please load up bags, they are waiting for you today.
I looked down at the last dollar on the desk and pushed it back to the man.
“God’s said to give this away. Here it is.”
At that moment, and for the rest of the time I was at the building of the food ministry, as Cardboard Vegetable boxes and brown grocery bags were just loaded up to the top—so heavy that they were carried to our car by Ashley and the man at the ministry, I thought, “Man! THIS is more than I ever thought, WHAT a blessing!!!” It was a hundred times perhaps two hundred times more than my last dollar could have bought.
I drove away with a packed car and thankful tears spilling down my face.
“My cup OVER FLOWS. Thank you, Father”, I prayed
And, ‘I TRUST you to take GOOD care.”
As we arrived home, there were SO many groceries all in those parcels that it took quite a while to put everything away. And with the baby needing me, and me being called away to other tasks as well, some of the produce I did not get a chance to put away until several hours later, right before the arrival home of our school-aged kids.
Richard was popping in at that time too, and sharing about how powerful his time in ministry at the Prayer Room had been. They had seen incredible movement of God in the life they were praying for healing that day. He was leaning on the pantry, talking to me while I shared about the food ministry and the kindness of our Father God that we had found there today, and displaying all the food to him.
As I motioned to the brown paper bag, sitting on the floor near the fridge, the one FULL of ripe tomatoes, I saw something inside. It looked like an advertisement or paper or something.
I reached in to pull it out before I put the tomatoes away…
And in my hand, found,
An One Hundred Dollar Bill.
“WHAAAAaaaat???? …is this???...Oh MY!!!!”
For the second time that day, tears flowed, this time in our kitchen.
We were still wiping them away as the kids burst in the door.
“Mommy and Daddy WHY are you crying??”
And the children were the first to hear our testimony of how God ALWAYS takes PERFECT care of those who take refuge in Him. He’s a GOOD, Wonderful Dad, you see.
And we all rejoiced!!!
You know, that dancing around that children do as Dad says YES!!! Or gives a really awesome gift. “You’re awesome, Dad!!!! Thank you!!!!”
We were looking at Faith’s Hundred-Fold return---the evidence of God’s real hand of love in our family.
Some may never see it.
And, yet, others have held it in their hand.
Deciding what to do with it
Save it?
Sow it?
Spend it on WHAT?
Some may call "buckets" of money their "last" as they grow low, while still counting on a "safe" cushion tucked away in another area.
And many others in the world,
Maybe not as many in certain areas of my country,
But certainly all over the world,
This is a reality.
There are LAST Dollars.
Yet there is LASTING TRUTH to stake our live on:
"I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread." (Psalm 37:25)
Are you a parent?
Or...step back to remember...
Would a GOOD Daddy ever not feed his child?
Forget to give him dinner?
Even if it is a simple one?
Would he give him a rock instead
of BREAD?
or a snake as a cruel substitution??
OF COURSE NOT!!
So it is with our GOOD FATHER.
The other day,
I held a last dollar, for our family, in my hand.
Honestly, these are sacred moments.
Times when the reality of Faith, and a Real Father who cares and provides, and the Words of my heart meeting up with the shelves of my pantry all meet together.
So what do you do with your last dollar??
We took it to prayer.
We had just packed up lunch “found’ from that pantry and sent the kids off to school.
And then, we went up stairs, closed the door to our room,
Knelt on the floor with that little dollar in our hand ,
And we prayed.
It was worship that flowed out, and Trust,
Just like how a little child could sing on her parent’s lap in the middle of a storm raging outside,
So we just Trusted, and Listened, and asked for exactly what we needed from Father.
We asked for specifics.
We asked for “sudden lies”.
We did some crying and some crying out on the hard wood floor of our room, in the soft morning light,
And we decided to stand in trustful expectancy.
Richard, headed off to minister in the Prayer Room, still with our Father.
And I remained at home, readying for the day folding clothing, last dollar in my pocket.
In this moment, God spoke inside me,
“Go spend your last dollar on Manna.”
And I thought, “That’s an odd request – I’m obeying!”
I knew exactly where He was referring, a food ministry for Missionaries, close to our Ministry work here.
And so, I invited my college daughter, got our baby in the car seat , and brought our last dollar over there.
Stepping out on a “strange little” prompting from God is always a little weird feeling.
And I just pushed through and holding out at the front desk of the food ministry my tiny offering and saying,
“This may sound odd to hear, but I need to testify. This morning God told me to spend my last dollar on Manna. And here it is. Please take it.”
As I spoke, God’s Gentle Presence just hugged me~ it was a sacred moment giving that little, last piece of currency away.
And I was so aware I was not without – THE MOMENT it left my hand.
“Oh NO! You keep it,” the kind man who leads the food ministry said, and I was just going to tell you that we have a whole BOX of produce we can give you today, and lots of bread, and dairy. Please load up bags, they are waiting for you today.
I looked down at the last dollar on the desk and pushed it back to the man.
“God’s said to give this away. Here it is.”
At that moment, and for the rest of the time I was at the building of the food ministry, as Cardboard Vegetable boxes and brown grocery bags were just loaded up to the top—so heavy that they were carried to our car by Ashley and the man at the ministry, I thought, “Man! THIS is more than I ever thought, WHAT a blessing!!!” It was a hundred times perhaps two hundred times more than my last dollar could have bought.
I drove away with a packed car and thankful tears spilling down my face.
“My cup OVER FLOWS. Thank you, Father”, I prayed
And, ‘I TRUST you to take GOOD care.”
As we arrived home, there were SO many groceries all in those parcels that it took quite a while to put everything away. And with the baby needing me, and me being called away to other tasks as well, some of the produce I did not get a chance to put away until several hours later, right before the arrival home of our school-aged kids.
Richard was popping in at that time too, and sharing about how powerful his time in ministry at the Prayer Room had been. They had seen incredible movement of God in the life they were praying for healing that day. He was leaning on the pantry, talking to me while I shared about the food ministry and the kindness of our Father God that we had found there today, and displaying all the food to him.
As I motioned to the brown paper bag, sitting on the floor near the fridge, the one FULL of ripe tomatoes, I saw something inside. It looked like an advertisement or paper or something.
I reached in to pull it out before I put the tomatoes away…
And in my hand, found,
An One Hundred Dollar Bill.
“WHAAAAaaaat???? …is this???...Oh MY!!!!”
For the second time that day, tears flowed, this time in our kitchen.
We were still wiping them away as the kids burst in the door.
“Mommy and Daddy WHY are you crying??”
And the children were the first to hear our testimony of how God ALWAYS takes PERFECT care of those who take refuge in Him. He’s a GOOD, Wonderful Dad, you see.
And we all rejoiced!!!
You know, that dancing around that children do as Dad says YES!!! Or gives a really awesome gift. “You’re awesome, Dad!!!! Thank you!!!!”
We were looking at Faith’s Hundred-Fold return---the evidence of God’s real hand of love in our family.
(Miracle Inside)
Never be afraid to pour out your last dollar in obedience and trust and love to Him.
A loving Daddy will do you NO wrong.
He just Won’t .
We know this well, for we live it. And we say, this is our testimony –our telling of His Goodness to us—but what we have YOU can have too!!
Never be afraid to pour out your last dollar in obedience and trust and love to Him.
A loving Daddy will do you NO wrong.
He just Won’t .
We know this well, for we live it. And we say, this is our testimony –our telling of His Goodness to us—but what we have YOU can have too!!
(Ava's Spontaneous Worship in a Sukkot)
Sometimes “last dollars” are trust in circumstances—jumping out into something new, or the last bit of Trust, or the last tiny bit of energy after a long season of weary, or the “last” bit of effort to love after we have been betrayed, the last try to obey when the promise seems long to come, the last portion of waiting on a heart’s desire…whatever it may be for you…You can Trust Dad. Oh yes, Our Father “who is in heaven” who has ALL the resources of heaven and earth in His hands and who is crazy- in- love- with -you…He can be MORE than Trusted. He sets up our lives to be dependent on Faith that trades in the little we have in our hand for the all in His hands and the love in His heart and the YES for us in His Spirit.
It’s an incredible trade-UP, wouldn't you say??
Sometimes “last dollars” are trust in circumstances—jumping out into something new, or the last bit of Trust, or the last tiny bit of energy after a long season of weary, or the “last” bit of effort to love after we have been betrayed, the last try to obey when the promise seems long to come, the last portion of waiting on a heart’s desire…whatever it may be for you…You can Trust Dad. Oh yes, Our Father “who is in heaven” who has ALL the resources of heaven and earth in His hands and who is crazy- in- love- with -you…He can be MORE than Trusted. He sets up our lives to be dependent on Faith that trades in the little we have in our hand for the all in His hands and the love in His heart and the YES for us in His Spirit.
It’s an incredible trade-UP, wouldn't you say??
