Faith Promise missions giving has certainly had a great impact on my family. My wife Tiff any and I were both reared in Christian homes where the principles of Faith Promise giving were taught to us at a young age. However, in the past few years, these principles were tested by trials that challenged our faith.
The Lord provided for us better than we ever could have by ourselves.
In January of 2009 our family was blessed with a new addition when Eli was born - we now had a family of four. Tiff any and I were excited and thankful for our healthy children and for the Lord’s provision for us. Things were going really well, and it seemed easy to be involved in activities like Faith Promise giving. Life became more diffi cult later that year in May of 2009, when I was unexpectedly laid off from my full time job. At fi rst, we were not overly concerned as I had my own business that was over a year old at that point and doing very well. However, a few days later, in that very same week, I found out that my primary business client had been bought out, and that we would be losing 95% of our personal business income as well. At this point in the week it became pretty difficult to understand exactly what the Lord was doing in our lives. In just one week we had lost my full time job, health insurance, and our personal business income. All of this was on top of the added expense of having a newborn in our home.
I personally feel it was during this time that the Lord used Faith Promise giving in our lives to build a stronger faith in Him. We never really thought of it as an option to stop or even pause our Faith Promise commitment during this time, but we did do a lot of praying for the Lord to provide, and allow us to be faithful to the commitment that we had made.
The Lord answered our prayers and showed Himself faithful to us in ways that we could never have expected. In the last year alone, we have seen God provide for my daughter’s fi rst year of school, answer prayers for health needs, provide for unexpected medical issues, bless us with a healthy third child, fi nancially provide for our family, and so much more.
Toward the beginning of these events, I can honestly say that things seemed very diffi cult; but as time has gone on, we have seen that God had a purpose all along for the things He was doing in our lives. Now, when we look back on certain situations that seemed so big at the time, we see clearly how the Lord provided for us better than we ever could have by ourselves.
One verse that really encouraged me during that time of struggle was Deuteronomy 31:8 where God was comforting his people through a time of transition. This was exactly what I needed - to know that it was the Lord leading our family through these transitions, and that we simply did not have to worry about Him failing us. God has certainly increased our faith, and we are so thankful for His goodness to us.
