Where are Your Stones?

Joshua 4:19-24 NIV

On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the tweleve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Isralites,"In the future when your descendants ask their fathers," What do these stones mean?" tell them,"Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground." For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."

Psalm 37:23-26 NIV

If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand. I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the rightous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.

My husband and I are huge supporters of tithing. We have seen firsthand how it works in our life. However, when we first began to execute this principle, we saw plenty of hard times. You see, we wanted to learn how to trust God so much that we decided that we would challenge him and his word. We gave the church that we attended 10% before taxes of our pay and waited for God, looked for him to do what only he could do: sustain and preserve us until next pay period. There were times where after bills, gas, groceries and tithes were paid, there would be little to no money in the account. And I’m talking about anywhere from 15.00$-25.00$ sitting in our account until next pay period, which could have been anywhere from a week to a week and a half away. But it was during those times, that God was building his case with us. God was showing us that it was him who kept us through our roughest times. He was the one who kept our health where there was no health coverage and gave us favor with our instructors, supervisors and bosses while we worked. And he still continues to do just that wherever we go.

During those seasons, there were days where we thought we’d be fasting because we only saw enough food for our children and yet, somehow, there was enough for everyone. There would be Sundays that we would get invited over for dinner and yet no one knew that there was no food in our house. We’ve had people buy us groceries, not looking for anything in return; they just wanted to help because they felt it was what God would have wanted. We even experienced a rough summer where we didn’t even know whether or not we’d be living in the same apartment by the end of the next month because we did not have the money for rent. But the money came. And we lived in that apartment until my husband graduated from college. We always had what we needed; we never lacked. That was God, nobody but God who kept us during those times.

While God was building his case with us, he was also producing something else: he was allowing us the opportunity to begin acquiring stones of remembrance. These stones would be collected over time to be used/referred for future situations.

Stones of remembrance are situations and circumstances that you are able to recall in your mind and sometimes even share with others about how God worked a miraculous thing in your life. How he created something out of nothing. These situations and circumstance are also known known as testimonies.

Even now, we still see rough times in different areas in our life, but, because Christ has built his case with us throughout the years, we have confidence that he will perform in a manner that only he can. There have been times where I’ve asked my husband” how, when, and with what?”, and he, on many occasions would responded with:

“I don’t know, but I trust God.”

Many days has this statement brought me back to my stones.

Your stones may look different from mine, but they are still reminders of what God has and can do in your life. So today, as our time nears end, I would like to challenge you to go back and re-visit your stones. And when you go back to your stones, ask God to show you the many other ways he kept you during that time. You will find that there may have been an uncanny peace about you/within you while you were going through the situation, or that you didn’t have to defend yourself ; someone else did it for you, or before you even had the chance to say a prayer, it (whatever the “it” may have been) was already take care of. Please believe me when I say that your stones are good for building because Christ is the author and finisher of your faith. He is the chief cornerstone.

Time to go and collect your stones.

#Stonesofremembrance #buildingtestimonies #trustingGod