Heaven's Raining Blessings and I Need an Umbrella!

"Here's what I'm saying: Ask and you'll get; Seek and you'll find; Knock and the door will open.Don't bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need" (Luke 11:9-13, The Message).

"Test me in this and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams. For my part, I will defend you against marauders, protect your wheat fields and vegetable gardens against plunderers" (Malachi 3:11, The Message).

I don't think I really ever believed these verses, until now. I mean, I believed them in an intellectual sense, and I could have written on them before, but now, I realize how personal and real these promises actually are.
As a college student, it is no secret that my wallet is not overflowing; well, it is overflowing with bills anyway, but not cash :( And I think that is part of the reason I have come to realize the truth of these verses. I never asked due to a couple of reasons. First, I always made the mistake of depending on other people. Both friends and family are only human, and they can only be reliable for so long. This is not because these people mean to be unreliable, it's just not possible for any one person to cater to everyone's needs. Second, I have always separated material, earthly related things from the spiritual ones. Because of this, I never asked God for anything like financial help. I might selfishly pray for a test or something after weeks of ignoring God, but that was about the most I ever asked for, and even then, I really didn't believe I'd get much help. Plus, separating the material from the spiritual made it even easier to not physically give back to God, let alone give Him my trust.
This was my norm for a while; separating the spiritual from the material from the real life. It was nice for a while, relying on myself or a few other people. I was accountable to no one and spent money on what ever I could. Then, recently, I was smacked in the face by the real world. I was promised by someone that my rent, bills, spending money, and Thailand trip money would all be provided for by that person. Well, that turned out to be an unreliable promise for one reason or another, and I was left with little money while my pay check went to the bills I could afford, which is not much when you are a work-study student. The more important bills, such as rent and utilities, were uncontrolled thanks to this person and my income, though there was no hope for the Thailand trip. My parents were of no help; my grandparents were of no help; and that left no one else. I mean, who else would be willing to lend me nearly $1000 for a summer trip?!
For some reason, I finally started to really pray about this and money in general, and I know a few other people were/are doing the same for me (you know who you are, thanks!). At first, I got peace of mind from this, and that made me happy enough. It felt great to not worry about getting the money for this trip, even though I didn't know, and still don't know if it will be provided. Nonetheless, I kept praying about this, but instead of me demanding that I go on this trip and have everything else taken care of, I simply asked God to do what He sees best, because at this point, I realized that my plans and intentions are not nearly as good; actually, they are usually pretty bad and selfish. Then, by just adding that to the prayer, I felt even better again, which made me get closer in this whole relationship. After all that, I felt like I made out pretty well. I felt better, I wasn't worrying, and I got back on track. But God didn't stop there. He had better plans, better than, and more than I had expected. I asked for this on Friday night, and my answer came the next morning (after I felt better and happier...). That Saturday morning, I enjoyed a nice talk and breakfast with William at Big Dog, which has the best oatmeal and coffee I've ever had! Here, God provided some much needed fellowship and some awesome oatmeal. And this Thursday, William and I are going back for some more! Then on Sunday, I got my free Communion lunch from Hot Metal, like usual, topped with some fellowship with people I've never met before. Monday, was when even more crazy stuff started happening. It started out with my psychology professor giving me cookies; my writing professor giving me hummus and chips, then a bunch of ethnic food later on. Between classes, I went to the coffee shop, even though I had no money. I was going to go to the library instead, I even walked all the way there, but I turned around, and went to the coffee shop because I randomly felt like it, which is weird because I never do that. Anyway, I got there and sat down by myself. A few minutes later, my small group leader shows up (who knows nothing yet about my financial situation and earlier prayer) and she asks if she can buy me anything. That left me pretty awestruck, and that further confirmed the idea that God really was providing after I asked. Then, one of my friends from the same group showed up, and offered the same thing! At this point, I was getting very full and decided that God was being "too generous" :). Apparently, He didn't think so, because later that night, through my small group, I got free ice skating and free pizza and Coke afterward! After my small group had a crazy time ice skating outside around a giant Christmas tree(which we decided was decorated by stone giants, by the way- I've been ice skating before, but never outside, so that was pretty awesome, especially since my group was there). We had the pizza later that night, which was free!!!, and then they gave me the left over pizzas and bottles of pop! Honestly, can there be any other explanation for all this stuff? There's more to this story, but I won't go into detail because I think I've made my point. (basically, I am getting all my meals and some other stuff for free this whole week pretty much, and I never even asked any person for any of this!)
After all this, I finally believed those above verses, especially Malachi 3. I never really thought of God would "open the windows of heaven and pour out such blessings that there will not be enough room for them" (Mal. 3:10). I think I felt this way because I always thought God wanted us to focus on Him rather than material stuff. Besides, when ever I asked for stuff in the past, I usually didn't get the pointless material things that I wanted. I'm not saying this means God is supporting materialism, but He does provide. I also learned that out of humility and true belief, God can and will give you what you need. It reminds me of when Jesus reminds everyone that God takes care of the birds, so He surely will take care of us...We just have to believe and ask with the right motives. And this is why I think God keeps throwing all of this at me: I asked with better motives this time. I've been given so much spiritually and physically lately to the point that I almost feel guilty for getting so much and having so much, hence the title of this blog-Heaven's Raining Blessings and I need an umbrella!- But then I realized that God doesn't want me to keep all this stuff for myself, and neither do I. Through my unclear vision of God's plan, I decided that this is God's way of answering someone else's prayers. Now that I have so much, in both aspects of my life, I can give back to God and other people. I'm not saying that this giving back depends on if I have money, time, etc; I should do it no matter what. Still, I think that all of this is going to benefit not only me, but other people, too. So I guess I don't need that umbrella anymore!