Dan Czaplewski posted on November 05, 2009 12:20
We just took another call from someone looking for financial assistance. They wondered if we could pay their electric bill. These phone calls and situations have always been a part of ministry, but there are more now than I have ever seen.
Yesterday an elderly widow in our congregation called me because she was concerned. Someone had called her, claiming to be a bank in Washington, DC, to say that she was a victim of fraud. This widow needed to give them ALL her bank information so they could take care of it. I told her it was a scam and she should hang up the phone and call the police immediately. She did and it looks like she will avoid a financial nightmare.
These are tough times. Some people who have been self-sufficient their entire lives are looking for help. Others are preying on others to get what they need (or want) no matter how much havoc it creates in the lives of others.
In I Kings 17 we have recorded a story of tough times. The prophet Elijah was dispatched by God to the town of Zarephath north of Israel. God had prepared a widow to take care of his needs.
When Elijah got into town, the widow was gathering sticks to make a fire and bake the last meal for her and her son. Then, she said, they would “eat it and die.” If you wonder where the end of the rope is, this widow had found it.
The long and short of the rest of the story is that God provided. God still provides. I couldn’t pay someone’s electric bill today, but I know that God provides. There are predators using all the technological skill at their disposal to defraud vulnerable people, but I know God provides. I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but I know God provides.
The reason that I know that God provides is not that everyone is always able to pay their bills. The reason that I know God provides is because He made provision for me eternally through His Son, Jesus Christ. In Christ, God provided a way to heaven for me.
The real danger of our current economic downturn is not that our lifestyle or future plans will be changed against our wills. The real danger is that we will lose our perspective. God is a part of your life for the long haul and His love for you is so certain that the present difficulties are not worth comparing to the future glory God has planned for you.
In tough times, God’s grace in Christ is even more certain.