Financial Freedom

I just found this in notes on my phone from last February. I was thinking about it this morning and went looking for it. I never posted it to my blog and it is something I needed to re-read today so I'm posting it now.

I was recently asked what I thought the definition of financial freedom was or what financial freedom looks like. It is a question that has kept me thinking ever since. I asked Glenn the other day what he thought and he answered like I did when I was asked that he thinks that we are in a position of financial freedom right now. It is not because we are debt free. We aren't. We owe over $100K in loans from medical school. It's not because we are making the big bucks. Yes, our W-2 is the biggest it's ever been and Glenn only worked half of last year (though most people would laugh at or at least shake their heads in wonder at our previous 14 tax statements - some of them were for 4 figures), but our financial freedom didn't start this summer when Glenn started residency. No. It started before then.

For the past couple weeks we've been reading George Muller: The Guardian of Bristol's Orphans. We've read it before. It's one of our favorites. Glenn had the day off one day last week and so we used that as a special opportunity to let him in on the end if the book with us as we finished the last several chapters. If you aren't familiar with George Muller he was a man who lived in the 1800s and lived by faith. He ran orphanages housing over 2000 children that were completely provided for by faith alone. It's an amazing story. I highly recommend this book! At one point he was faced with the great need for housing for orphans and the need to open another orphanage at a huge cost. Here's what it said about him: "Many people might have felt burdened having to believe God for such a large sum of money, but not George Muller. George wrote in his journal, 'The greatness of the sum required affords me a kind of secret joy; for the greater the difficulty to be overcome, the more will it be seen to the glory of God how much can be done by prayer and faith.'"

Now, that. THAT, in my mind, is financial freedom. He had no concern for his finances. He never worried how God was going to provide, he just knew that He would. He knew. He really knew the One who knew what his needs were and he was just excited to get a front row seat to see what God was going to do.

I love those front row seats that God has given us time and time again. He has been so faithful to take care of us and He is so generous to provide for us. We can trust Him. Our source of financial freedom has never been based on our the income we've gotten from jobs. It has always been Jehovah Jireh - our Provider.