“If God wanted you to have it, you’d already have it.”
Though a cliche saying, I’ve come to realize how true it is. I’ve come to the conclusion that if the God I serve actually created everything I see around me, then if he wanted me to have something, it wouldn’t even be a challenge for him. This seems pretty simple, but I like to take this to the extreme. If for some reason, I absolutely needed to have one million dollars by tomorrow, I would wake up with one million dollars. This seems utterly ridiculous and improbable (not to mention, the likelihood of me “needing” one million dollars by tomorrow is basically non-existent), but the truth is, if God wants it to happen, it would.
A real-life example:
When I was at a mission training program in North Carolina, one of my friends on the mountain (who was married and had a small baby) told me about their financial history. He told me that when he and his wife first got married, he had a very well paying job. That he was making a lot of money and that expenses shouldn’t have been an issue. But he said that somehow, they never had enough to pay their bills each month.
He talked about how focused he was at that time about climbing the ladder to make more and more money. That was his focus. Yet he and his wife were constantly struggling financially.
Eventually, he started to realize his unhealthy obsession with making more money. After several months of considering and praying, he and his wife decided that they wanted to get involved in long-term missions. What did this mean? First off, it meant leaving his nice well paying job. Second, for them, it meant going to this mission training program – where we had this conversation. Which meant no working for a year.
How could they afford to not make money for a year if they were already struggling to pay their bills with a good job?
After gaining a few supporters, they moved to North Carolina. They put all their trust in the Lord. They truly felt like this was where God was leading them, and if that were true, he would provide for their needs, whatever they may be.
Incredibly, when I had this conversation with him, about 7 months into the program, he said that they had not once had a month where they didn’t have enough to pay their bills and expenses. He said they didn’t have much extra, but they had enough every month.
There were some months when they had $1,000 left to pay to make it through the month and he had no idea where on earth they would get the money. A horrible feeling. But somehow, God always provided. A random anonymous check in the mail. A couple in their church who said they felt like they should give to them that month. God always provided. He provided for the needs.
Money means so little to God. It’s literally nothing to him. If he wants you to have it, you have it, if he doesn’t, you don’t.
This isn’t to say that you won’t ever go through hard times if you trust in God, but simply that if you seek him and seek to do His will, he will give you the money you need to continue on that path.