Tom was a faithful guy. \u00a0He loved the Lord and did his very best to serve God. \u00a0 One day, Tom was deep in a wonderful daydream. \u00a0He was lost in the fantasy of winning the lottery. \u00a0Oh, what he could do with a few million dollars.
\n\u201cI could pay off my debts and buy a new car. \u00a0I could also help the church build a new fellowship hall! \u00a0I could support a lot of missionaries and\u00a0the local food bank and shelter!\u201d
\nHis mind was awhirl with dollar signs and ways to spend it! \u00a0 He was so compelled by this dream that he began to pray and ask God to help him win the lottery.
\nMany times a day he made his petition to win the lottery. \u00a0He reminded God that he could do a lot of good with the winnings, and also piously reminded God that the workman (himself) deserved his wages too!<\/p>\n
Months turned to years, and nary a prayer time passed without Tom making his petition for lottery riches, but still God did not answer Tom\u2019s unrelenting request.<\/p>\n
One day Tom was distraught. \u00a0In a fit of rage, he tore into God. \u201cFather, I have been a faithful servant to you. \u00a0I have helped the poor, gone to church, tithed 10% on the gross, supported short-term missions, and been a good guy. \u00a0Still, you have seen fit to ignore the one thing I have asked you for many years now! \u00a0Lord! \u00a0I want you to answer my faithful prayer. \u00a0I want to win the lottery!<\/p>\n
With the last syllable out of his mouth, the air turned cold and dark clouds began to gather. \u00a0Out of the dark thunder clouds, God boomed:<\/p>\n
\u201cGive me a break! \u00a0 At least buy a ticket!\u201d<\/p>\n
_____________________<\/p>\n
There is an old adage that goes something like \u201cGod helps those who help themselves\u201d and while it sounds scriptural, it isn\u2019t! \u00a0Of course, the ditch on the other side is that we do nothing until God does it all! \u00a0Both can be equally naive and catastrophic.\u00a0As most of us have learned, that as with many things in life, we are quite helpless on our own and yet there are many examples of how we can cooperate with God. \u00a0 One big way we do this is to learn to say \u201cYes\u201d to God.<\/span><\/p>\n In learning to take this open stance towards God at work in our lives, we quite naturally begin to move in the direction the Father is leading. \u00a0The rule of thumb being that we do all that we can do and trust God for the rest. \u00a0Likewise, with Peter stepping out of the boat to take a walk on water. This all seems to resonate with Paul\u2019s encouragement to the Ephesians (ch. 6) \u00a0that when we have done all we can, we stand! \u00a0 We then watch for the Father to do what only He can do!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom was a faithful guy. \u00a0He loved the Lord and did his very best to serve God. \u00a0 One day, Tom was deep in a wonderful daydream. \u00a0He was lost in the fantasy of winning the lottery. \u00a0Oh, what he could do with a few million dollars. \u201cI could pay off my debts and buy…","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,34],"tags":[167,179,487],"class_list":["post-10277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-soul-significance","tag-everyday-spirituality","tag-faith-in-real-life","tag-spirituality-of-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}