Are you gleaning your fields?

I remember standing in the middle of the Party City aisle staring blindly at brightly colored rolls of construction paper and thinking, "how am I going to buy this?"  In the forefront of my mind I could see the $16.00 balance in my account.  We still had a week until payday and nothing in the fridge to make for dinner that night, but I had signed up for VBS and I needed the paper to decorate my room.  My oldest was just looking at me in her "I see through you" way and my youngest was running around the store touching and grabbing everything, wondering why mom would bring him to this cool store if he couldn't get something fun.  My armpits were sweating, there were tears in the back of my eyes and I was just so sick of worrying all the time about money.  

I'm not sure how it happened, but it was a slow process that one day picked up speed like a snowball rolling down a massive hill, and the debt that we were in was about to drown us.  Little by little we had made foolish choices and now we were reaping what we had sown.  

We had been trying so desperately to chip away at the debt, but every time we turned around something else would break or some new disaster would happen to sink us again.  No matter what we did the situation just seemed to get worse.  

So, that day I grabbed my little guy and started heading out the door with my hands empty and with him asking rather loudly why we weren't buying something.  Ashamed and embarrassed because my very perceptive teenager knew exactly why we were leaving with nothing.  I cried tears of defeat on the way home, but I was determined to do what I had learned to do when I had a problem I couldn't fix.  I went to my closet and threw myself down on the floor and I cried out to God...  and He saved me (us).  

I could literally write a book about what happened after I prayed that day.  Things that were so incredible you wouldn't believe me, but they are true.  God truly turned our situation around starting that day.  I could tell you a miraculous story about how God has provided for us, but that's not what this post is about.  

This post is all about the "one thing" that changed EVERYTHING for our family.  I want to share a secret with you that's not really a secret, but will transform your financial life.  First of all, let me say I am the furthest thing from a money expert.  Everything I have ever learned has been through making terrible choices and terrible choices begin with terrible thoughts.  So, first thing first...  before our bank account changed our minds had to change.  

Let me tell you how we got into this huge mess in the first place...  we thought our money was well... ours.  We thought we could do whatever we wanted with it because it was ours and we had a "lack" mentality... we spent every dime we made and we could never get enough and THAT is where the debt started.  We weren't happy and content with what we had so we began to use credit to get what we wanted and that was the beginning of a perfect storm.  

The truth is everything I am and everything I have is GOD's.  I'm just a steward of my life.   That mental shift changed my relationship with money.  Viewing everything I had as a gift from a loving Father helped me begin to be grateful and thankful instead of greedy and jealous.  With a new sense  gratefulness I could now see the difference between a need and a want.  There are a million things I could share about all the things that the LORD showed me during that time, but today I just want to stick to one idea.

When GOD gave the laws to Moses he threw this little gem in that has been a game-changer for us.  

"When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.  Do not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes.  Leave them for the poor, and the resident alien.  I am the LORD." Leviticus 19:9

What does this mean?  Well, to glean something is to gather (grain or whatever you are harvesting) after the reapers.  It's to get every last drop.  Don't miss a thing.  But God commanded the land owners to NOT glean their fields.  He commanded His people to leave the perimeter of their fields and the leftover of their crops for people who were less fortunate, this included widows, orphans, the poor and resident aliens.  This command was AFTER they were told to give their FIRST and BEST ten percent of the harvest to the LORD.  He finishes this command by saying something essential to obedience  "I am the LORD."  

He is the LORD.  He is the provider.  He is the reason you have a harvest at all.  He sends the rain and makes the sun shine.  Every thing they had came from Him.  He had blessed them and so they should be like Him and bless those around them.  They didn't own the land...  the land was God's and they were stewards of HIS land and commanded to care for others from HIS land.  

There is a beautiful demonstration of this command played out in the book of Ruth.  I encourage you to take a look at the story, you will be greatly blessed whether it's your first time or 100th.  

In this story God uses a man named Boaz to show us what this concept looks like.  Naomi and her daughter in-law Ruth return to Bethlehem widowed and destitute with no one to provide for them.  Ruth knowing she has to find a way to provide for her and her mother in-law finds herself in the fields of Boaz gleaning the grain that had been left behind.  

God provided for Ruth and Naomi through the hand of Boaz, who followed GOD's command, not only that day, but forever.  He allowed her to glean his field that day and sent her home with more than enough for herself and Naomi.  Later he gave her a years supply and eventually a lifetime when she became his wife. 

Boaz understood that everything he had was from GOD's hand.  He understood that he was blessed to be a blessing.  He understood his RESPONSIBITY to care for the people around him.  He understood the truth behind this verse "He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and HE will repay him for what he has done."  Proverbs 19:17

or "A generous person will be enriched, and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water." Prov. 11:25

I could share a many verses from GOD's word, but here is one last command straight from the lips of Jesus, "Give to the one who asks you, and don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." Matthew 5:42

WHAAATTTT Jesus???  What are you saying...  Well, let me tell you what I think Jesus is saying...  TRUST GOD.  If we trust GOD to take care of us we don't have to worry about what we give away.  We don't have to worry about lacking anything.  We don't have to worry at all...  GOD knows what we have need of....  seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of Heaven and all this will be added to you.  

Seeking GOD's Kingdom is seeking to care for the people around us.  Seeking the Kingdom means loving people and often times that means leaving your fields (un)-gleaned.  

Our situation is a little different than if was a few years ago and I am so very thankful for that, but I would go through it again to learn all that I have learned about GOD and about myself.  I PRAISE GOD for changing my heart and mind about money.  The simple truth that everything I have and everything I am has transformed everything.  

Maybe you are in the situation we were in a few years ago...  Maybe you are sinking under the weight of debt?  Maybe you see no way out of this mess OR you don't have debt, but can never seem to make enough money to pay your bills...  I'm not sure where you are in your current situation, but I feel pretty strongly that this truth will transform your life.  

First and foremost... PRAY.  GOD is willing and able to help you.  Nothing is too hard for the LORD.  HE can enter into your situation in a ways you never dreamed.  

And also there is a little nugget of truth that popped out at me today when I was reading this story again...  Boaz could have easily justified gleaning his fields that year because there had previously been a long famine in the land.  Naomi headed back home that year because she had heard "the LORD had paid attention to his people's need by providing them food."  The famine was over in Israel, but I'm sure there were many land owners who hoarded up their grain that year.  When we are fearful we will go without we tend to hold on to every last dime.  That's why generosity is really an act of obedience out of a knowledge that GOD will take care of us and give us everything we need.  

No matter where your find yourself today I hope that you will consider the beauty of GOD's enduring and timeless truth...  "One gives freely YET gains more, another withholds what is right only to become poor." Proverbs 11:24

So I encourage you to invest in Heaven...  the returns are out of this world.  GOD BLESS YOU!!!