Faith and CUTCO knives

I feel that the title of this blog title is really very much what I and Valerie are experiencing this summer. The past month and a half have been very stretching for us in terms of our faith in God's provision and His making good on the promises that He has made! The reason for the title is that we are going back and forth with living out of faith that God WILL provide for His people all that they need, and feeling like we have to provide for ourselves because we don't always see His provision immediately.

There is a passage in scripture from Jeremiah 17: 5-8 "Thus says the Lord, 'cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a brush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes but its leaves will be green. And will not be anxious in the year of drought nor cease to yield fruit."

This passage of scripture has really encouraged me these last couple of weeks. There is an obvious comparison to the person who trusts in man, or I would be willing to wager oneself, and the person who trusts in the Lord. It seems pretty clear that God loves it and blesses it when His people trust in Him and Him alone, and do not trust in men. God has promised that those who trust in Him will flourish and have ALL of their needs met, even in drought and heat. Why is it so hard to believe that He will?

Valerie and I are facing our own drought and heat with fund-raising. There are specific and pressing needs that must be met now, and so the need for immediate money. But we also know that once we have reached our funding goal, those needs will surely be met. So, it is a struggle to not lose heart that God will provide, and to not go looking for a job that we think might provide better than God. Thus: CUTCO knives. Valerie and I have been looking for part time jobs until we are fully funded, and the best we could do so far was CUTCO knives, which is basically fund-raising only you are selling knives and make less money.

Why can't I believe that God will provide?! God is the God of the universe! He is the one who invented this thing we call money! He is the one from whom all things flow and have their being! He is totally sovereign over all creation including man! Even people who have "jobs", I am proud to say, have been given those jobs by God Himself and would not have the money they do if God had not given it to them! Money coming from an employer is no different from money from people because of fund-raising, because both of those sources come from God Himself!


Fund-raising is a blessing in disguise because we are surrounding ourselves with people who support us, love God, and can be a huge encouragement for us in the hard times! How lucky are we that God has called us to such a magnificent job that we get to meet and surround ourselves with people like that! Valerie and I have been drawn close together with trusting in the powerful provision of God and the faith-solidifying process called fund-raising!