ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMIN'S baby

One area of my life that I have always struggled giving to God, is my finances. I, like most people, was perfectly fine with praying, reading my bible, going to church and even helping people. But I wanted God to let me decide how I would handle my finances. See I grew up in a single parent household. Though we always had everything we needed and even some of our wants, it was a struggle. I had a mom that worked really hard and a dad that always contributed, but supporting a family that is no longer under one roof is a strain. So I told myself that when I grew up, I was not going to struggle. I made up my mind, that I was not going to ever look in my bank account and not have enough for what I needed, what I wanted, and then some. I loved the thought of having a stacked bank account. For whatever reason the thought of having a lot of money offered me a sense of (false) security. 

Ecclesiastes 5:10 NIV  'Whoever LOVES money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.'

Thinking back, the funniest part of it was that I still struggled with money problems. The very thing I swore gave me security. I have been working since I was 16 (sometimes two jobs at a time). I don’t like to spend money so I have always been a saver. And eventually I even owned my own business but I was still struggling financially. I tried everything you can imagine to change my situation. And though it may have worked short term, it eventually landed me right back where I started. The problem wasn’t my work ethic. It was my priorities. Money was what gave me a sense of security not God.  I had more faith in my bank account than in my creator. And I did not believe that giving my finances to God, would bring me out of the very situation I was praying for him to fix.

 Mathew 25:23  'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your masters happiness.'

So I wanted to share a short testimony of how giving God my everything, even my finances worked in my favor. As I stated before I own a business (IMAGE’n Me Photography). And I had been dragging my feet to finish some legal paperwork for my business. The reason I was procrastinating was because  I knew it was going to cost me a large amount of money that I just didn’t want to spend. I did not want to come out of my pocket for almost $900, even though I knew God was nudging me to do so. I kept ignoring God. But at the same time, I was frustrated that business wasn't increasing the way I wanted it to. After I tried everything I could think of to bring in more clientele (sales, giveaways, etc.), I finally gave in and just decided to do what God told me to. I decided to invest in my business and spend the $900 like God had told me to do a long time ago.

So I prayed, filed my paperwork and reluctantly paid the money. Now let me tell y’all what happened. Within one week (and this is not an exaggeration) God allowed me to make more profit than the amount I had just spent. On a normal week, I might have been making about $500. But on this particular week, I made over $1000. More than I had ever made in one week, since I started my own business. I could not believe it. All that time I spent trying to figure out how to make more income and all I had to do was exactly what God had asked me to. Obedience got me exactly what I had been praying for. Looking back it makes absolutely no sense that I was so scared to listen to God. He had never left me hanging before so I should have just trust him a long time ago.

God needed to see that I could be obedient and faithful with what he had already blessed me with. That I could handle what was on my plate, before he could bless me with more. And I know this was just a small glimpse of how much more God has in store for me. I share this story to encourage you to give it to God. Whatever it is. Whatever God has placed on your heart to do, just do it. Disobedience or placing something above God (money, people, things, etc.) might be what’s standing in front of your blessing, deliverance, healing, etc. God needs to see that he can trust you with what you already have, before he can proceed to do more. So just do it! It’s so worth it!