Living Cheap in June, Week One

Well, we've gotten through our first week in June...although only 5 days of the week were actually June, but I'm going to count it. A tight budget is a challenge for me and I'm up for it! And so is my God, Jehovah Jireh..."The Lord Who Provides":

• Free clothes for my daughter at a garage sale, summer and fall/winter. Cute stuff in good condition, too!
• Summer shirts for me at a garage sale...8 shirts for 50 cents a piece
• Hubby going on a big cook next weekend (big money-maker), after initially being told he wasn't going. Thank you, Lord, for your favor!
• Blessed with a gift card to a local grocery store
• More clothes for my daughter...some pretty dresses for church and cute shorts/pants for summer
• Free book through paperbackswap.com that I needed for my summer Bible/book study came on the day of the first meeting
  
• Free plants for our garden
• Free diapers
  

Seems like there's something else, too, but it escapes me at the moment. It always amazes me how God works...or how well He is able to work...in our lives when we just let Him. When we don't worry and fret and try to figure out how He's going to meet the needs that sometimes seem to be impossible for us to meet. And I love that He uses the complete gamut...total strangers...enemies...friends...family...to channel His blessings to His children.


I love this account of Abraham, who was commanded to sacrifice his son, from Genesis 22. I would like to believe that I would have the faith of Abraham if God ever asks me to do something that difficult! Abraham trusted that God would provide and continued on in faith, doing as God had asked him to do. When God saw that Abraham was obedient and completely trusted Him, He provided what was needed.

22:12 “Do not harm the boy!” the angel said. “Do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God because you did not withhold your son, your only son, from me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. So he went over and got the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place “The Lord provides.” It is said to this day, “In the mountain of the Lord provision will be made.” bible.org

In the mountain of the Lord provision will be made. That caught my attention...just what or where, exactly, is the mountain of the Lord? Here is what I found:

There are only two places in the Scriptures that refer to the mountain of the Lord. One is the wilderness, that place between Egypt and Israel, a place of unbelief, restlessness and judgment. God met with the Israelites there on Mount Sinai. The other is Mt. Moriah, where Abraham was commanded to sacrifice his only son.

It is also the mount on which the Temple was later built, and it was not far from there that our Lord was offered for our sin. This mountain is inside Israel, the land of faith, rest, and blessing. Here, the Substitute, Jesus Christ, was revealed in type and picture by Abraham’s offering of the ram instead of Isaac and by all the sacrifices of the Temple later built there. Of this mountain it is said, “In the Mountain if the Lord, IT WILL BE PROVIDED!” ~ The Mountains of the Lord

It is interesting to note that the first mountain was where God met with the Israelites and gave them the Law, the Ten Commandments. The second mountain was where provision and atonement were made...on one mountain, God demanded...on the other, He provided.

God still provides in the wilderness seasons of our lives...the Israelites ate Manna, their clothes never wore out, and no one got sick in 40 years...but what blessing there is in resting in Him, in trusting in Him! It's easy to imagine that these Biblical champions of faith never wavered inside, never doubted...that it was easy for them to just trust God. Yet, they were human and must have had human emotions. Did Abraham have fear or doubt? It's not clear...but what is clear is that in spite of how he may have been feeling, he chose to obey the Lord's command and step out in faith. He trusted that God would provide, and He did. Even when it looked impossible...