Quite a few years ago, I was reading a passage in the Bible. It was Matthew 6:8. It said, “Do not be like them, for the Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” That verse was said by Jesus. It was in the context of prayer.
I remember one night, it was 11:00 pm, I was up late, but my wife was sleeping. I was reading my Bible. I read that verse and thought to myself, “That is such an interesting verse.” Then I thought, “I am going to do that for the next 2-3 weeks. I am not going to ask God for anything. I am not going to pray for anything I need. I am not going to do any of that for 2-3 weeks.”
What I learned in the next 2-3 weeks, that everything I would normally pray for happened anyway. But something even more unique happened. It started in that 2 week period of time, for the next year and a half, I was unable to purchase any coffee in any form. I would go to a coffee shop and I would go to buy a cup of coffee, and someone would say, “I would like to buy that for you.” There were numerous times where I would go to buy a cup of coffee and the person behind the counter, working there, would say, “This one is on the house.”
It got to the point where I would go through the drive-thru and something would happen at the drive-thru. In one case, I got up to the window, ordered my drink, got up to the window, and the lady at the window said, “Oh, the car in front of you paid for you.”
The very next week, same coffee shop, same place. I got up to the window and the person in the window said, “We had an accident here tonight. Sorry, it took so long. This one is on the house.”
It got so ridiculous. For 18 months, I could not buy coffee. I remember one time, actually at another coffee shop, I went to pull my card out to swipe it in the slot, and somebody behind me swiped ahead of me. I remember, it was no matter how hard I tried.
Then probably about a few months in, there were two different coffee shops in Redding. I have some friends that worked there. They said, “Any time you run out of coffee, just give me a call and I will give you free bags of coffee.” I never did call, but every week, every two days, they would text me and say, “How is your coffee supply?” I would text back and say, “Well, I just ran out this morning.” Then the next day they would have bags of coffee on my deck.
This went on for a year and a half. But something happened in that 18 month period and that’s what I want to talk to you about. It was this: I was really thankful, it was kind of fun. I literally got my order and would kind of wait for someone to pay. It got so ridiculous it kind of just happened. It almost created an expectation.
But then I got to a point where I was getting really frustrated. I was like, “I can pay for my own coffee. You don’t have to pay for it.” I remember one time I got really frustrated. Someone swiped for me. And I remember telling them, “Please, I want to pay for my own coffee.” I heard the Lord, He began to correct me at that moment. That was really the purpose of this season.
I began to realize that I had only let the Lord bless me according to what I thought I needed. And so, my entire paradigm was wrapped around, “How do I get out of debt? How do I go from the red to just break even?” My spirituality, my relationship, my area of finances…all these different areas. I just need to break even. And I realized when I read that verse that night, what the Lord was wanting to teach me was, “I don’t want you just to break even in every area of life. I want to take you to a place of abundance of every area of life.”
It would be 6-8 months into this crazy coffee journey that I realized I just need to embrace this. It was really hard for me. Something broke inside of me that needed to be broken. Something got off of me that needed to get off from me.
And I began to realize the Lord doesn’t want us to just break even in life, in our emotions, in our private personal life, in our spiritual life, in our minds, in our natural finances, and all. He wants us to actually be in a realm of abundance. Because a lot of us pray prayers like this, “God, I want to be a resource to people.” Well, God needs to actually make you a resource so you can be a resource to people. And to the people you do life with.
I want to encourage you. Remember, the Lord knows exactly what you need and our relationship with Him should not only be based on what we need. It is actually a relationship. He wants to take us not just for breaking even in life, but He wants to take it to a place of abundance.
So, I leave that with you and I want to pray for you. Father, I pray for everyone listening to this. They will realize that you want them to live in a place of abundance not just in breaking even. I pray that a crazy, unique situation, like a coffee store with me, would begin to happen with people that are watching this. I bless you in the name of the Lord. Amen.