God operates by seed time and harvest – you reap what you sow – what goes around comes around – and any other way you can state it. The Bible teaches that whatever you give will be returned to you multiplied. 

It is like a garden – if you plant flower seeds in the garden, you reap many flowers back. I have lived my life this way for at least 30+ years – so it is too late to tell me this doesn’t work! I am not always perfect at this, but that doesn’t mean God’s way doesn’t work!

The Bible proves that it is OK to have “stuff” – those things so many Christians get bent out of shape over. You know – nice homes, expensive cars, the best clothes, perfume, and beauty products. God is such a wonderful, generous, loving Father and He takes very good care of us if we let Him. It really is OK with Him for you to have the best – as long as that best doesn’t have you.

What do I mean by that? Well, if I have something and God says, “I want you to give that to so-n-so” and I freak out and say, “BUT GOD! That’s mine! Don’t you realize it is my last one?! What am I (me, myself, and I) going to do if I give that one away? I won’t have any then!” 

That reaction means whatever it is, it owns me. I don’t want to let it go. I’m afraid He will take it away and not bring me another.

So here is a little story of how I got over that “owning me” thing and how He takes care of me.

I was cleaning my closet one day and came across my stash of goodies. I have a habit of buying more of one of something so I don’t run out. Thus was the case of one of my favorite vintage colognes, Ma Griffe by Carven. I found I had one bottle of this perfume left.

So I hear God say to me (I don’t mean I heard an audible voice – just that knowing inside), “I want you to send that bottle of Ma Griffe to Carolyn.” See Paragraph 4 for my reaction. I mean, at that time, it was very hard to come by this cologne (no ebay), this was my last bottle and I did NOT want to give my last bottle away. But, I finally caught myself, repented and said, “I’m sorry, God.  I trust You and I will send this to her.” So I did.

A week or so later, I was in Branson, Missouri and had stopped at an outlet store to pick up something for my son.  I was getting ready to leave the parking lot and felt this urge to stop in a store I’d never gone into before. I didn’t recognize the name on the awning and thought  to myself, “Nah, I don’t want to stop in there.” The feeling wouldn’t go away so I parked the car and walked over to the store. 

As I got nearer to the store, I saw a newer sign –one I recognized – a relatively famous outlet mall perfume store. I wandered in, not really thinking about buying anything. 

They were having a sale.  I don’t mean they were having a little bitty sale – no. They were having a “we have to clean the store out and make room for newer stuff” sale and it was Week #3 of the sale. That means that while the cologne and lotion bottles were picked over, what was left was priced very inexpensively.

I still didn’t get it yet, what I was doing in there. I began looking through the bottles on the counter and came across – could it be? YES! A large bottle of Ma Griffe. HEY – another one – then more. The next counter had smaller bottles, too. Perfume, cologne, eau de toilette – when I tell you I grabbed them all, don’t think I was crazy, OK?

Here is the deal:  I paid $4.00 for the small bottles and $8 for the large ones. To put that in perspective, I usually paid $40-60 for the large bottles of eau de toilette. I had hit perfume heaven – nirvana! And I know exactly Who I owed this great deal to – and yes, I sure did give Him the glory and honor for leading me to those deals.   

Imagine if I hadn’t sent that bottle to my friend (my “seed”.) I truly believe I would never have felt the tugging to walk into that perfume store. I would have missed it, my harvest! I would have missed a lesson in learning to trust God to provide everything, even the smallest detail like my favorite perfume.

God is a good, good, good God!  It is time for the world to know it!

p.s. and I wasn’t being selfish buying several bottles. That was a way to always have something to give away later on down the line.

Just remember, if God is asking you for something, He is trying to get something even better TO you – seedtime and harvest. In every area of your life.