"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. " ::::: Matthew 6:19-21
Recently, I have went through so much of my material things in life and realized how much money I have spent on useless things. Things that I am now getting rid of. I have thrown sooo much away in the past few days. I also have a huge box of stuff that I'm going to be taking to Goodwill. Some of the stuff has never even been used. It's absolutely ridiculous.
I was talking to my dad on the phone the other day and he was telling me how he was working on a job up in Chesterton, IN and the job was in a neighborhood that he said resembled Beverly Hills. He never even knew this place existed in Chesterton and he works up there all the time. The guy that they were doing a job for had literally spent over $50,000 on landscaping for his yard. For what??? For someone else to admire and enjoy?? I can see spending a few hundred dollars to landscape, but $50,000???? Imagine if he would have taken just $1,000 of that money and donated it to 100 families. Maybe it would have bought winter coats for their children for the year. How selfish have we become that we would rather spend money on useless, materialistic items than make sure the little child down the street does not freeze in the cold.
This has been a huge burden on my heart since I have came home from my last trip to Indiana. I got back last Thursday night and have just been heart broken ever since. So many of my cousins have apparently decided that drugs and pills are more important than their children and families. One of my cousins has 4 little children and they mean the absolute WORLD to me...their mother has pretty much decided that she doesn't want anything to do with them, which has caused my cousin to take full custody of them. Don't get me wrong, he is doing the best he can to raise his children, but I don't think he is doing enough. Is it my place to say this, probably not. But I hate watching his children growing up knowing that they are getting all that they deserve. Anyway, enough of that subject as it just breaks my heart and makes me cry everytime I think about. I have been praying for my cousins and my family really hard. We have had a lot of events happen in our family and I hope that God can get them to wake up and realize that He is the ONLY way.
At REFUGE on Sunday, Kenny preached on this very same thing. It was almost like he had witnessed what I did in Indiana and knew exactly what I needed to hear. How we need to help the lost and dying world. Many people who are on drugs and pills and are alcoholics believe they are too far gone for God to love them. That couldn't be further from the truth. As long as you are breathing, you have a chance to change your life. God loves everyone and wants everyone to follow Him. That is what we were put on this earth for. Many people believe we were put here to grow up, go to school, meet that special someone, get married, have a family and work the rest of our life. The "American Dream" right? Nope, not so much. We were put on this earth to worship and follow our Savior, Jesus.
This brings me to the continuation of the verses in Matthew 6 where in verse 33 it says "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." So many people worry about things in life that Jesus can provide for us if we seek Him first. I'm guilty of it as well. Numerous times I have questioned how I was going to be able to pay for this or for that. But there has always been a way. Awhile back, I had decided that I wasn't going to worry about that anymore. I would let God provide for me if it was His will.
I have become a huge fan lately of the quote "Rejection is God's perfection." This quote can be used in ANY aspect of life. If it's God's will, it will be. If not, there is a reason God didn't allow you to have it. Who are we to question His reasoning? I'm a huge believer in everything happens for a reason. Same reason I believe I'm still in South Carolina. Like I said in a previous post, I could have moved back to Indiana many times in the past few months, but I believe God was telling me to stay here. He was making it work out for me to be able to do that. Whatever His reasoning is, I am perfectly fine with it. Even if it means being 900 miles away from ALL of my family and many of my friends. It gets lonely, but I want to give my life to God with complete abandonment. I want to serve God with everything that I have.
Which leads me to an amazing thing that has happened in my life. As you know, my old job moved up to Fort Mill back in March and I was going to go work up there and move up there. I cancelled the lease on my condo in Hammock Bay and put all of my stuff in storage. After that, I went to Destin with Stacy and Britt for a week and decided then that I wanted to go into business with them. So we started our own condo company. Well fast forward to the next 4 months and Stacy pretty much spent all of the company money, left Britt and I pretty much broke (company wise) and packed up and went back to Illinois. Well unfortunately, Britt and I just couldn't pick it back up. So I decided that I would start looking for a new job. I applied for TONS of positions. Some within the travel industry, but more outside the industry. So Jacquelyn and I are out shopping one day and I get a call from one company requesting a phone interview for a position that would be a work from home opportunity. I would have been booking cruises for over 39 different companies and brands. So I am beyond excited. Sounds like the perfect opportunity. I go through the first phone interview and then the second. Next thing you know. I'm being offered the position. So I accept. Not kidding, but 15 minutes after I accept the position, I get a phone call from AAA requesting an interview for the position I had applied for through them. So of course I go to the interview to see what they have to offer. I had to meet with 3 people at the same time. Talk about intimidating. LOL Especially since I hadn't been in an interview in almost 5 years. So I talk with them for about an hour. One of the ladies ask if I would be available for a second interview. Of course! :) So I go home to Indiana since I knew the call wouldn't come for a couple of days. I got the call last Wednesday requesting a second interview for this past Friday. Now in the meantime, I had decided I was going to continue on with the position at home just in case I didn't get the job with AAA. So I go through the second interview process with 2 more ladies. One of them tells me that she will be in touch with me in the very near future. So of course I'm wondering if I'm actually going to get the job. I had been praying and praying and praying because it is the job I had really wanted. My training for the at home position was to start today at noon. Well last night at about 630, I read my "message from God" on Facebook and it said the following:
"Tiffany got a message that on this day God wants her to know....that you've been talking to God too much, and not listening enough. Prayer is when you talk to God. Meditation is when you become quiet and listen to God. You've learned how to talk and ask well. Time to learn how to listen and hear, because God has been answering you."
Crazy right? Well I never thought about it much. Well about 10:00 last night I'm sitting at the table on my laptop and all of a sudden I'm like "I can't take that at home job. I just can't." The hours were crazy, I had to be available from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. and my schedule would be anytime between that. That would take away from my volunteer opportunities that I'm gonna be starting soon and also more importantly, God. So I text my roomie while she is at work and ask her if she thinks I'm crazy for not taking it. She of course says no and that I'm gonna get the job with AAA. :) So I wake up this morning and decide that I'm going to email the company and let them know that I have decided to decline the job working from home. I'm not kidding you, 4 minutes later, my phone rang and it was AAA offering me the position. I started crying when I hung up the phone from them. I knew that it was the feeling I had last night was God telling me not to continue with the at home job and to trust in Him and He would provide. And as soon as I put my trust in Him. He did just that. He provided. What an amazing praise and I'm sooo thankful to be able to give Him the praise and honor. He is soo amazing! With this job, I will be able to work for a HIGHLY respectable company and still be able to do my condo bookings on the side, which is a huge passion of mine.
What an awesome day it was today. I'm sooo thankful for so much in my life. We may not think we are, but we are truly blessed and VERY rich. Even if we don't think so. Think of all of the people in the world that don't have shoes, or a place to lay their heads at night. This leads me to the next burden on my heart. Pillows....I have 5 on my bed. What a luxury that many people don't have. I really want to buy a bunch of pillows and give them to the homeless. Even if many of them don't have a bed to sleep on, they can at least have something soft to lay their heads on. This is gonna be a project of mine that I am going to work on....I just feel like it's something I need to do.
God is so amazing. If you do not have a personal relationship with Him, I encourage you to take the step and ask God to forgive you of your sins. Thank you Lord for forgiving me and loving me, when I deserve it least.
"If God is on our side
Who can be against us?
If God is on our side
We won't be afraid
Though the mountains may fall
And the sky will crumble
There ain't nothin' gonna stand in our way..."
Chris Tomlin "God Is On Our Side"
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