In early 2014, I was copied on an email that went to the families involved in a homeschool co-op group.\u00a0 In this email, the mother told of her struggles with her four children, all with various learning disabilities, and how she was going to be selling tamales to raise funds to help her and her husband pay for doctor\u2019s appointments, necessary medication, and care for their children.\u00a0 She was taking pre-orders on tamales and, although I thought about purchasing some as a way to support the family, I sensed the Spirit prompting me to send an anonymous monetary gift instead.\u00a0 The amount that came to my mind was $100.<\/p>\n
Upon receiving this prompting, I prayed over the family and asked for the Lord\u2019s wisdom and direction.\u00a0 I also prayed that if this were the Lord\u2019s will, that He would stir in my husband a similar desire.\u00a0 Shortly thereafter, with a heart burning to support this family, I told my husband the story and asked if he would pray about this.\u00a0 He did, and he felt it was important to obey the Spirit\u2019s prompting and to send this family money.\u00a0 He asked how much I thought we should send, and I said \u201c$100\u201d, to which he replied, \u201cI was thinking the same amount\u201d.<\/p>\n
Later that day, I took a brand new $100 bill out of our safe, sat in a chair in our home office, and prayed over that money and the hands that would receive it.\u00a0 Then I wrote a prayer note and Scripture in a small card, inserted the cash, and mailed it with no signature or return address.\u00a0 I wanted to make sure that my giving was in secret, and that my right hand did not know what my left hand was doing (Matt. 6:3)<\/i>.\u00a0 I expected nothing in return, and was just overjoyed to give.\u00a0 I prayed again as I licked the envelope seal and as I dropped the card in the mail slot.\u00a0 \u201cLord, multiply this\u201d, I said, \u201cand may it bring you glory\u201d.<\/p>\n
Time passed and I went on with my daily routines of life.\u00a0 Several weeks later, I decided it was time to call a glass replacement company to get the windshields replaced on my husband\u2019s and my truck.\u00a0 Both windshields had been cracked for a while and the cracks were spreading.\u00a0 I contacted the glass company and got approval from my insurance agent to have the replacements done.\u00a0 While scheduling the appointment with the salesperson at the glass replacement company, he told me that I would receive $100 in restaurant coupons for each glass replacement, and that I would also receive $100 cash as part of a promotion. \u00a0I had never been given cash before for any kind of business transaction of this sort.\u00a0 It seemed too good to be true, but I waited to see what would happen.<\/p>\n
On the morning of the appointment, my husband took his motorcycle to work so that I could have both cars at home ready for the glass replacements.\u00a0 The repairman showed up on time, and I led him to the two trucks in the driveway.\u00a0 When the repairman finished replacing the windshields, he called me outside to sign the paperwork, and then handed me two $100 restaurant gift cards and a $100 dollar bill.\u00a0 \u201cUnbelievable\u201d, I thought.\u00a0 \u201cThis is amazing.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThank you, Lord\u201d I said as I walked back into the house.<\/p>\n
I called my husband right away and told him of the gift cards and the $100 bill that I was holding in my hand.\u00a0 He immediately reminded me of the $100 that the Spirit had prompted me to give secretly to the family in need, and told me that there was no coincidence in me receiving the exact amount ($100 cash) back, plus the two $100 restaurant gift cards.\u00a0 The Lord had repaid us according to His promises.\u00a0 \u201cGive, and it will be given to you: \u00a0good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. \u00a0For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you\u201d (Luke 6:38).<\/i>\u00a0 I cried the minute my husband put the two together.\u00a0 What a testament to the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0 I thank God for the Holy Spirit who prompted me to send this family a gift.\u00a0 I thank the Lord for answered prayer.\u00a0 I thank the Lord for revealing His wonderful works to me, to my family, and to all who will hear and see that the word of God is true and righteous altogether.\u00a0 Everything in His word comes to pass:\u00a0 \u201cThat your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly\u201d (Matthew 6:4)<\/i>.\u00a0 I thank our Father for openly reward our secret gift.<\/p>\n
I continued to keep the family in prayer, and still do at various times.\u00a0 I never expected to hear from them or to receive a thank you.\u00a0 How could I, they didn\u2019t even know who had sent them the money.\u00a0 However, several weeks later, I was copied on another email that went to all the families in our homeschool co-op group.\u00a0 That email read:\u00a0 \u201cTo the anonymous family who blessed mine:\u00a0 We received your gift.\u00a0 We don’t deserve your kindness but we are grateful. \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Thank you, thank you, thank you.\u00a0 Our prayers for your blessing to return to you one hundred fold.\u00a0 May our King continue to use you as a tool for His glory.\u00a0 With love in Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAmen! \u00a0Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever.\u00a0 Amen!\u201d (Revelation 7:12).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In early 2014, I was copied on an email that went to the families involved in a homeschool co-op group.\u00a0 In this email, the mother told of her struggles with her four children, all with various learning disabilities, and how she was going to be selling tamales to raise funds to help her and her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nakatsus.com\/kerry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nakatsus.com\/kerry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nakatsus.com\/kerry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nakatsus.com\/kerry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nakatsus.com\/kerry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nakatsus.com\/kerry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293,"href":"https:\/\/www.nakatsus.com\/kerry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions\/293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nakatsus.com\/kerry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nakatsus.com\/kerry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nakatsus.com\/kerry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}