Me: Howdy, Prodigal!
Prodigal: Hi, I am just visiting with my friends of the air. They tend to move around. While he is in town then we are catching up.
Me: Yeah I have friends that are overseas in the mission field and also in the United States. I have one story of a missionary that lived in India.
Prodigal: Since my friend travels, I am sure he will enjoy this story about the missionary.
This is a story from Amy Carmichael, who was called to help orphan children from India in the early 1900’s. This tells of a time when she was in the middle of her calling.
We do not tell when we are in need unless definitely asked, and even then not always; for often the leading seems to be silent, except towards God, and we fear lest our little children should seem to crowd in among the many claims to help which must press so heavily upon the hearts of givers at home, and intercept anything which should be sent elsewhere. We rely upon the verses which assure us that our Father knows our needs, and we take it that with such a Father, to know is to supply.
We remember a time of threatened famine, when prices were suddenly rising and twenty pounds was needed to lay in a stock of paddy (unshelled rice). That week brought us a single gift of 20 pounds from a friend in England, whose very name up to that time was unknown to us. So the paddy was poured out in a great heap on the ground, and measured, and we paid for it with light and happy hearts.
Again we remember a day when a letter came telling us of a child in danger far away. Sufficient money to meet necessary expenses must be sent off that same afternoon, or she would otherwise appropriated, and from that appropriation there would be no release. We had not enough money in hand to pay for the chief charge, the long journey of those who would bring her to us; and no money could possible reach us, even if we sent a messenger with a cheque to cash, it would take two days time. While we were reading the letter, our good postman came up joyfully with a roll of rupees in his hand. It was from Canada, enough to cover all the expenses connected with that little child’s deliverance. We piled the silver on the floor and knelt down round it and thanked God. It meant redemption of another child.
This is faith and a trust in God in the purest form. Amy was not looking to men to meet her needs but from God above. She knew that God saw all and could bring provision from all over the world at the perfect timing. She lived the bible. She did not just quote from it. I see people sometimes who can quote the bible better than I can but they do not have that relationship with the verses. I always feel so sad for them. Their is a richness of love, understanding and closeness that can only come from that relationship.
How do start to have that relationship instead of just head knowledge? You pray for it first and then you don’t always tell everyone everything but just tell God. Let God alone answer you. I have God answer me almost every week about something that is only between me and Him. I write these down, I thank Him for these and it grows us closer together. I start to learn how to follow God and not the men of the world. How can you start today to live the word of God?
Matthew 6:25 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26: Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
