At the prayer meeting in the local church it was my turn to share a prayer need and I mentioned how I was seeking income. Everyone prayed over me and the next day I received a phone call. It was my friend Jim who was a little older then me. He told me (not knowing that I prayed with some people the night before) that he can offer me some income by helping him clear some land by cutting down trees, shrubs, and vines.
It was rough work to say the least. I had to haul loads and loads of the debris back and forth over a bridge to a grinder. I had to stand in mucky muddy dirty stinky water near the top of my boots. It was mosquito infested and the air was heavy. It rained off and on for the next few days.
From my prior experience doing labor work with construction during the crazy hurricane season of 2004 I gained a work ethic that prepared me for this job. Because I was jobless and desperate I took the job without complaint.
I remember the Biblical wisdom I had in my mind that the moment that I memorized. One was to work as if unto the Lord and the other was to be content in all things. This helped me get by with this type of job.
Later I was reading in the Bible where Jesus mentions the women who gave all she had and this inspired me.
So the following Sunday at Church I gave my full pay check to the church in the offering plate as a step of faith. It was a huge risk and gamble on trust with God at the time but I wanted to see what it was like to fully trust Him.
It felt exhilarating and freeing to trust God with my money.
A couple of days later I received a phone call from a girl I knew at church. She asked me if I was still looking for a job and I told her I was. She said she was connected to someone who she could give me a good reference to. So she gave me the number and told me to call it. The project manager answered the phone and interviewed me. I didn't know if I did well at the moment until I received a phone call and he said I was will have a 2nd interview.
I came in and got the low down on the name of the company and what they do. They were called CII and they provide service to military personal as their main client throughout the United States. What they do is update systems of communication.
On the outside I was smiling and nodding but on the inside I was thinking to myself " I don't have experience for this job!"
Somehow they liked me and wanted to hire me.
I had to do some drug tests, background checks, and the whole 9 yards so to speak.
When I found out the type of hours and pay I would get at the age I was I almost flipped.
They offered a full time schedule at $15 with benefits including health and dental, per Diem, Hotels paid for on the road and so on.
I was excited!
After around 3 months of working I got in with the wrong crowd.
Bad company corrupts good morals.
I stopped reading my Bible and going to church. I stopped tithing.
I wanted to be "In" with the crew.
I started to drink with them and get drunk.
I squandered the blessing.
The Bible says you reap what you sow. I sowed t the flesh and I received the discipline I deserved.
One day I came in work with a hangover and felt terribly sick. I started puking everywhere and the Boss sent me home to recover.
When we got back in town he wanted to see me in his office.
He told me he had to let me go because they didn't need me anymore.
On a Spiritual level I knew what was truly going on.
The Lord gives and takes away. I reaped what I sowed.
I learned a few valuable lessons that day. If you don't tithe your robbing from God:
Malachi
3:7-12 (HCSB)
Robbing God
7 “Since the days of your fathers, you have turned from My statutes;
you have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to
you,” says the Lord of
Hosts.
But you ask: “How can we
return?”
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me!”
You ask: “How do we rob
You?”
“By not making the payments
of the tenth and the contributions. 9 You are suffering under a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are
still robbing Me. 10 Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be
food in My house. Test Me in this way,” says the Lord of Hosts. “See if I will not
open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without
measure. 11 I will rebuke the devourer[a] for you, so that it will not ruin the produce of your land
and your vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the Lord of Hosts. 12 “Then all the nations will
consider you fortunate, for you will be a delightful land,” says the Lord of Hosts.
God will bless you if you tithe. Your sin can lead to blocked blessings.
Trusting God leads to security. Being in the Word keeps you discerning.
