The first in the series:

Times often are hard where ever you may live. Hurricanes, wars, floods and other types of disasters are directly affecting the living conditions of the world’s population, some more than others, of course, but affected, all of us are.
However that is not the purpose of these thoughts. The question to be asked is “How do we apply whatever it is that God allows to come into our hands. Unfortunately, we have observed, both in Brazil, as well as in the USA, that most people have developed a “consumer mentality”. Buy whatever strikes their fancy, whether or not they NEED the item. Spend next week’s salary, or next month’s, or even next year’s, without real thought related to their capacity to retire the indebtedness. I saw a commercial on TV some time back presenting some type of instant food using the statement “Zap it for 20 seconds in the microwave, and voilá, instantaneous total self gratification!” I have no idea what the product may have been, but that statement of a philosophy of life, I’ve never forgotten.
However, even that isn’t the purpose of what I want to relate to you. What I really want to say may be best illustrated by the life of a little Brazilian girl that we won’t identify any more than this.
This little one began attending our church in Belo Horizonte as a very young child, and soon several in the family had made commitments to Christ. As so often happens, soon afterward, her dad lost his job. It seems that Satan never misses a chance to bring on discouragement. Over the weeks of looking for work, spending only the bare minimum to sustain life, things were getting worse and worse, so this little girl made a very sincere request for prayer – not that God would send, as it were, manna from Heaven, but that her dad could find work.
This simple faith of a little girl moved the heart of God.
As a professional cook, her dad’s first idea was to make and sell specialty snack foods, so she asked that we pray for successful sales. He had more orders than he could fill, and at the same time, he continued to search for employment that would bring stability that comes from employee benefits. Therefore the little one continued to ask for prayer for her dad’s employment, and not long afterward, he was able to get a job that was more than adequate to the needs of his family.
He worked several weeks, and then one day when he arrived home from work, she got him by the hand, lead him to a room apart. She said, “Daddy, sit down, we need to have a serious talk” Obviously, he was really intrigued by this statement, so he sat and quietly waited.
She continued, “Daddy, when you lost your job, the church prayed, and God fed us, right?” To which he agreed readily. “Daddy”, she continued, “when you decided to make and sell the snack foods, the church prayed, and you had more orders than you could handle, right?” Once again the nod of recognition. “The church prayed again, and you got this good job, right?” To which he had to answer in agreement.
“Well, Daddy, don’t you think you owe it to God to tithe this income that He gave you?”-- And he did.
A small girl, a simple faith, an uncomplicated story ... but where does it fit in your life today? How are you handling what God places in your hands? Take a good look at yourself. Is your first interest, by chance, self gratification?

JSturgill
08/17/2007
Vol.1 - No.1

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