A blast from the past:

“Look what I found at the bottom of the stairs,” announced my brother holding a large bag of groceries. I was so thankful for I knew my mom had trouble navigating my stairs–so I assumed she, knowing I had no food, had been the one to leave the bag. We had just moved back from out of state and I literally did not know where our next meal was going to come from.

I didn’t have a personal relationship with God yet. I was raised in the church to revere and honor the Trinity but I was not walking with them yet–but I was learning an attitude of gratitude. I knew that even though I was struggling to get back on my feet, there were others so much worse off than myself and I was grateful for what I had.

Before the wave of relief had even passed he said, “By the way, I wanted to invite you guys over for a steak dinner tonight.” I thought to myself, “This is too much to believe. He never comes to my house and now he is inviting us to dinner?!” I knew God had to be responsible. Not only did he send me a bag of food but a prepared steak meal on top of it!

When my brother left I called my mom to thank her for the groceries. “What bag of groceries?” she asked, “I didn’t leave anything.” Then the realization hit me that God used the most unlikely source available to care for my needs. My father raised us up to be proud people, always do for ourselves. It was a shameful feeling to not have something we needed. We thought pride was a good thing. I was very humbled that day to think of my brother, who normally showed no compassion, walking the aisles of the grocery store, filling a bag for me, paying for it, delivering it to me, failing to take the credit for it, then inviting us to dinner–a tremendous act of kindness and generosity from a do-it-for-yourself kind of guy.

I don’t know if he remembers that day or not–I’ll never forget it. I tell people all the time, you can’t take pride to heaven. But there is good news–“The proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored.” (Proverbs 29:23) Paul tells us, “Be satisfied with what you have: for God himself has said, ‘I will never fail you or abandon you.’” (Hebrews 13:5) Do you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders today? “Yeshua [Jesus] the Messiah is the same yesterday, today and forever.” “Therefore, we say with confidence, ‘ADONAI [the Lord] is my helper; I will not be afraid.’” (Hebrews 13:6-8) Give your worries to the Lord and prepare to be amazed.