The Old Lady

There is an old story about an elderly lady in a leper hospital in S. Africa, when some new missionaries came by to visit the current missionaries. They were given a tour of the hospital when they saw this old lady, she was missing all of her fingers, and all of her toes, part of her eyelids had already fallen off, along with a good part of the rest of her body. The new missionaries told each other they needed to go visit this lady, and try to cheer her up. So they went in her room, and before they could say a word, she smiled real big and welcomed them to the hospital, then she went on to tell her how happy she was being at the hospital. In her village, she would be an outcast, she would have to live outside the village in the wild. She would have to depend on the kindness of others for food, and water, if anyone would bring it to her at all. But everyone at the hospital was so good to her, they were all happy to see her each day. She was able to move around the facility, and visit with other people, and when someone new came in she was able to share her love for her LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. In her 40 years in the hospital, she had personally led over 100 people to Christ. Actually since she was saved after arriving at the hospital, her condition had improved, because of all the prayers people were saying for her.
The missionaries left the room, both in tears and amazed. This was the first time either of them had ever actually seen the truth to Phil. 4:11 "for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content". Reading about things, and hearing about things is one thing, experiencing them first hand is another.
Paul goes on in verse 19 and says "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus". The question is not can you understand the verse, the question is can you believe the verse. There are times he test our faith, like the time before I got approved for disability, and we were living on one income, there was this one month that we did not have the money for our light bill. I prayed, and prayed, and prayed, but it came down to the last day to pay the bill. I got up that morning, and told God thank you for giving us the money, even though at this point I was very doubtful. At 10:00 I saw the mailman, and went to get the mail, in the mail that day was a check from an auto insurance company I had left 2 years before. I had overpaid them by $149.32, the light bill was $149.36. I made it to the bank, and cashed the check, then down to the light company. She looked up my account, then picked up the radio and called the service guy to tell him not to turn off our power, he was getting out of the truck at my house. Another 30 seconds, and it would have been to late, we would have had to pay the reconnect fee anyway. He provides on His time schedule, not ours.
You see, I had overpaid that company two years earlier, because as we are told in Matt. 6:8 "your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him". He knew two years earlier that I would need that much money on that specific date. If the money had gotten there any earlier, it would not have strengthened my faith the way it did. After that, I had no doubts of any kind about whether He would supply our needs. Not until my disability started coming in, and I did not "have to depend on Him". I mean with the extra money coming in, I did not have to pray for every meal to be provided. Of course He was providing by giving that monthly check, but if you've ever been in a situation like that you will understand the feelings of relief I felt at that time. Since then he has taught me again to trust Him, and how to be content in my present situation. As with Paul's thorn in the flesh, His grace is sufficient for me.