Time Changes Rob God!!! =)

I am just going to say it.....I HATE this time change stuff, except when we GET to sleep in an extra hour, this loosing an hour of sleep stuff.......oh my, and whoever invented this obviously DID NOT have children!! Oh my word.......ok, whew, got that out. =)

We had a good and busy weekend! I'm not to sure I like weekends like that, where you wake up Monday exhausted rather than refreshed, but oh well, here I am anyways. It's definitely a two cup of coffee morning, so bear with me while I get this quiet time going this morning.

Ya'll.......God just keeps on showing himself and showing himself and showing himself so more to me through this She Speaks scholarship! I am AMAZED at how God is providing! I am totally almost there! As of today my total stands at $350! WHO HOOOO!! So many of you are apart of this story and I'm just so on top of the world still!!! Thank you for hearing God's voice and giving! I am AMAZED!!!

As I continued on through Malachi this morning, I am at the part where he begins to talk about robbing God. That is why my title said, "Time changes rob God!" It totally does.....think about how many people missed church or Sunday school (eh hem.....ME), didn't bring their tithe to church because they forgot it it because they were a frazzled mess trying to get out the door in 30 minutes (eh hem......ME) and think about how many people just COULDN'T get up this morning to spend time alone with God! (me......a little late, but still here) So my argument......time change ROBS GOD. Agree or disagree??

But actually, Malachi isn't talking about time changes in his words this morning. He is talking about our money......ouchy. I don't like to talk about money, and I know there are many, many views on this.

Malachi 3:8-10: "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How do we rob you? "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse - the whole nation of you - because you rob me. But you ask, "How do we rob you?" "In tithes and offerings. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house test me in this," Says the Lord almighty.

The first thing that I had to remember is this, "Everything is God's anyways." I learned this the hard way.........He took it ALL away to remind me that nothing, and I mean NOTHING on this earth is mine nor should anything on this earth be a treasure. I'm totally ok with being poor (ok we're not POOR,but, you know.."broke")....kinda. =) I mean, don't get me wrong, when on Saturday night we went to see a friend's beautiful BIG NEW awesome home, I was a little envious.....just a tinsy bit. Ok, a lot, I mean, ya'll should've seen this house, it had COLUMNS in the bathroom! Anyway....when Kris and I took a Crown Financial course at our church, God really started to work on both of us about money.

This verse (that just took me 10 minutes to find!! it's one of those days!!)....... 1 Chronicles 29:11, it really changed my way of thinking "Yours O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours." We KNOW that God "created" everything, but do we really know that even this computer that I am typing away on right now, it truly belongs to God!

When Kris and I were taking this class, Taylor must have been three years old. And as WE were changing the way we looked at things, we would say things to her too to make her understand. Well, one day she started walking around singing, "Everything's Gods....Everything's Gods....Everything's Gods.....O Everything's Gods." That SIMPLE song that she made up.....boy oh boy, did it STICK with me!!! So as we started applying this to our finances, it truly changed how we viewed money.

But, here's the kicker with this verse in Malachi! God actually TELLS US TO TEST HIM. What?? I know....I thought we were not supposed to test God? BUT, this is the one thing God actually wants us to test Him in. Giving to Him. Now, I know there may be some "issues" about how much to give. I remember a friend said to her that a very godly woman told her and her husband that time is part of the tithe too. Well, I could see that, and we are supposed to "serve" and give God time too, but this verse is actually talking about money. Real, actual money. Like what we pay bills with. And the tithe is %10 of whatever comes in to my home.

But listen to this verse what God promises us in our obedience......verse 10 continued "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." WOW!!! And I must testify that there is so much truth to this!! Ya'll......on paper......our finances NEVER make sense. I mean, we have cut and cut and cut back some more, but we know that we still depend on Kris's side jobs to make up the difference from his super high paying job (hee hee, church's don't pay that much!!!) And we totally seen God prove this over and over to us.

God doesn't ask us to figure it all out......He just asks us to be obedient. And for Kris and I, that obedience right now meant moving to a very small home and cutting out everything. God said it, He showed it and He definitely confirmed it. It's been hard, I struggle almost every day with this old tiny house, the fact that I can't watch HGTV anymore and having SUPER SLOW internet speed...... But, I know we are right where God wants us right now. And since He put us here, if we are faithful in our obedience with Him and our finances, HE is going to make it make sense.

Oh ya'll.....I wish you could see what I'm looking at right now. The sun is coming up through my back yard and it's just peering through the trees......it's just so sweet and it's just God's promise to me right now that I can never out give Him.....never. After all, HE gives me this beautiful sunrise each day.....how oh how would I ever compete with that?

Ok, I have seriously gone over my time and I'm sure I've bored you to death today. Sorry for the very long post. If anything it was just for me to write this all out and process it again! Ok, REAL quick:

Frugal Me Monday Tip:

Tithe......and WATCH God provide!!! When it doesn't make sense on paper, test Him, just like this verse said, and watch Him do his thing!!