Debts, eggs and water

Two years into my marriage, I was making late payments on tithes, loans and rent. I remained firm in the faith, was aware of His promises, but did not know how to make them come true in my life.

Since my stomach was not complaining, my faith was complacent. Good or bad, we always had our daily bread. I continued working in the hope of one day enjoying the promised land.

We were happy, were faithful to God, continued in the faith, had a clean conscience and did not live in sin. That is how we lived from day to day.

One Thursday evening at about seven o'clock, I came home. The thought of being with Esther gave me strength to face the following, boring day of work. I knew the weekend was approaching and that meant we would again be able to spend time together. This made up for the mediocre life we had.

Suddenly, a spark ignited a revolt.

—Edir, do you have any money? I need to go to the supermarket tomorrow.

—Esther, I don’t have any more money. I gave you everything I had. To be honest, the only money I have is for my bus fare tomorrow morning. I don’t even have enough to come home after work. I was counting on you to pick me up on your way back home.

—But we have no food in the house. The fridge is empty. All we have is eggs and water.

Anger immediately rose up inside of me. I felt revolt and hatred for that situation. My blood was boiling.

That's when I awoke from my religious sleep and began to demand what God had promised.

This is absurd! ...

I grabbed Esther’s hand, picked up a Bible and went to our bedroom. As we knelt on either side of the bed, I opened the Bible, put a finger on Malachi 3:10 and asked:

- Lord, is this true or false? Did You really say this or was it made up by some man? How can I know?

I have been following you for eight years and have always heard that the Lord will open the windows of heaven, and so forth. But up till now I have only heard this spoken about. I have not seen anything like that happen in anyone's life...

Right now I'm in trouble and have to turn to. Lord, if You do not answer me, how can I continue to believe in Your Word? Forgive my boldness, but is this the truth or not?

Lord, I know You are watching us right now. So if this is true, I want an answer tomorrow!

On top of everything else, Jesus, You promised that if two agree about anything that they ask for, it will be granted to them by Your Father... Matthew 18.19.

So, may Your Word come to pass!

By late afternoon the next day, I came home full of joy and with arms full of groceries. But beforehand, I went to the office of the church I attended and gave my overdue tithe.

Since then, I’ve never lacked money at home. And we've seen what we never saw before, the windows of heaven opening. It’s simply extraordinary.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, my God, is infinitely great! Not only in our lives, but in the lives of millions around the world.

But it all started with a desperate situation that led to a revolt.

This experience taught me the difference between being religious and being a conqueror. As long as I held on to religious customs, I kept hoping that my Father’s promises would simply rain down on me. But once I grabbed a hold of my faith and adopted an all-or-nothing attitude, either God exists or He doesn’t, I was cured of that anemic, religious faith.

The truth is, if earthly matters defeat me, how will it be with spiritual matters? How can you take hold of the Kingdom of God when you are not decisive, violent and bold?

"If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?" Jeremiah 12.5