LAW
OF RECIPROCITY
Are You Working Hard, but Not Getting Ahead?
By Michelle Wilson
The 700 Club
Maury and Michelle Wells had just started renovating their new
home. They had financed some extra money to make the repairs.
But when Maury began the restorations, he soon realized their
home improvement ideas would cost more than they thought.
"We started accumulating some credit card debt because the savings
weren't there to pay off the credit card. Then we’d be broke,"
Michelle explains. "We’d be, like, don’t spend any money
because we don’t have any money to spend until the next check
comes."
The Wells decided to go through the grueling task of cutting
their budget. Michelle, a stay-at-home mom, didn’t leave
anything out.
"I would only purchase really necessary stuff," she says. "I
wouldn’t go out, knowing that it was going to burn gas. I
wouldn’t go traveling. I’d stay home. I would cut down
the phone bill and try and change our phone plan. Instead of $25
a month, we went down to the $4 a month—anything that we
could do that was going to save us $20 here, $20 there."
But it wasn’t enough.
"I didn’t understand how it all happened," Maury recalls.
"I get up and go to work every day, and then all of a sudden,
because of the projects around the house, we were behind."
 Maury
and Michelle began to pray about their financial dilemma. In the
meantime, they started watching The 700 Club. Many of the
stories they saw were about everyday people who got of debt by
giving.
"We were watching probably almost every day in the month of January.
We started off being kind of cynical the first couple of weeks,
but by the end of the month, we were just really on fire about
this," Michelle says.
The Wells were now beginning to understand the principle of giving.
Pat’s teaching on the Law of Reciprocity helped to solidify
the concept of giving God your best.
Says Maury, "Watching The 700 Club, I fell in love with
Pat, I fell in love with the whole show. Anything he has to say
he will back it up with the Bible. He is not coming up with things
out of the blue. As far as I’m concerned; it’s genuine
teaching."
Before the teaching, the Wells had given to their local church
when they could afford it. They now realized they hadn’t
been giving God their best.
"We never took that step of faith to tithe the correct amount,"
says Maury. "It was what was left over at the end of the week."
But when Maury suggested they tithe the correct amount, 10 percent,
it seemed impossible. However, they were willing to test God,
as the Bible commands, and see what would happen.
"I had just written the check to the church and stuck it on the
refrigerator. I prayed over it and said, 'Lord, this is what You’ve
blessed us with. We want to give it back to You. Just do what
You can with it,'" Michelle recalls praying.
While watching The 700 Club, the Wells began to see the
needs of others. In the midst of their financial dilemma, they
decided they wanted to be a part of changing lives around the
world, so they joined The 700 Club.
"They will help whoever needs help," Maury says about the ministry
work of CBN. " I think they were digging wells in China for the
people of China. That impressed me that they would go and do something
like that for someone they don’t know or may not know Jesus
Christ. They are helping in the name of Jesus alone, and it’s
very true and it’s very real."
As they helped meet the needs of others, they started to see
God meet their needs. Two days after sending in a contribution
to CBN, Maury received an unexpected check in the mail for vacation
hours he never used—840 hours, to be exact –from a job
he left eight years ago!
"When the vacation check came, that was the point in which I
realized everything is going to fall into place, everything is
going to happen as God wants it to happen," Maury says.
On the same day the Wells received that check, they also received
a special gift from CBN for joining The 700 Club: Pat's
book Bring It On.
"We were so excited waiting on the Bring It On book to
come in," Michelle says.
Now the Wells are finding joy in giving God control over every
area of their lives, especially in these unstable economic times.
 "It
really has given us confidence to put our faith in God," says
Maury. "That is comforting. It really is comforting to realize
that you’re not in control. All our debt has been wiped out
since we joined The 700 Club. This series of events that
has happened—getting the money from eight years ago that
I didn’t even know I was owed, and getting three times the
amount we were expecting—with us, without a doubt, He has
proven to be trustworthy. "
God’s wants to bless His children. Maury and Michelle are
living proof of that! When they were obedient to God’s word,
He was more than faithful in taking care of their needs. God wants
to bless you too!
One way you can give to God’s work is through CBN. When
you give to CBN, you will reach those in need through food and
clothing programs, provide medical care and humanitarian aid,
dig clean water wells and cisterns and so much more. Please
join with us today. There are so many that need a tangible
expression of God’s love.
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
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