God's Economy is in Fine Shape!

Thursday morning, December 4, 2008 [cloudy and too cold for me!],
As you well-know, Christmas is upon us, in spite of the "official" declaration of recession. Can you believe it? It is Christmas and we are officially in a recession and trying to dodge a depression! I thought God was the all-powerful and good God with infinite resources, but I guess I was wrong. How in the wide-world could this all-powerful, good God, who has infinite resources, allow such a terrible thing to happen to us? How does He expect us to have a Merry Christmas when the financial world is going to Hell in a hand basket? Where does He expect us to get enough money to buy presents, when we can barely make ends meet? How does He expect those who have lost their jobs to have Happy Holidays? Bah humbug!
Actually, I have another question: Have we come to the place where the joy of Christmas is somehow linked to the size of our bank accounts? If we have (and I am afraid we have), we have really been deceived. I never will forget Ma Stumph; she didn't even have a bank account, much less money to put into one, but she did know the joy of Christ-mas—every single day! On one Christmas Eve, just before going to church, her young son told her that he wanted some supper. Knowing that there was no food in the house what-soever, she replied with, “We will eat when we get back from church.” As you might imagine, this young lad was very hungry by the time they returned, and Ma was most concerned about feeding her young son! For some reason, as soon as he walked into the door of the house, he went onto the back porch and let out a scream that scared Ma nearly to death! “Ma, Ma,” he exclaimed, “look at all these groceries! Where did they come from?” She caught her breath, walked calmly out onto the porch, looked at the many bags of groceries and replied, “Son I have no idea where they came from, but I know who sent them!” Ma died without ever knowing where those groceries came from, but she also died without ever forgetting who sent them, nor did she ever lose the JOY of Christmas!
Instead of chasing around trying to find figure out how to come up with enough money to buy presents for those who already have everything they could ever possible need, ask the Holy Spirit to show you someone who really has a need, and then ask Him to use you to meet that need. You might be surprised at what happens! I will tell you this: doing so will remind you that the JOY of Christmas is NOT tied to how well Wall Street or Main Street is doing; instead, it is tied to the fact that it really is more blessed to give than it is to fret and worry about whether we are in a recession or a depression! Just for the record: God’s economy is not in either, and He is good all the time and every time!