Comments on: The Tyranny of the Fear of Financial Insecurity

By: free dating sites

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By: chadhollingsworth

chadhollingsworth — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:40:07 +0000

Absolutely beautiful and refreshing. I love it.

By: Rolando Pedraza

Rolando Pedraza — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:37:53 +0000

I just wanted to say thank you for sacrificing your valuable time to write such an inspiring book “The Shack”. I am not what anyone would call a “reader”, due to being diagnosed by my doctor, as someone suffering from A.D.D. I suffer from extreme distractions & I lack normal focus skills/abilities unless I am captivated by a very, very interesting topic/subject, which is rare. Your book has shockingly captured my attention (truly inspiring), which has motivated me to dedicate more time to pleasure reading. I often find myself having to read the same page or paragraph over & over again in order to remember what I have read. I have not had this problem at all with your book. I feel like “Papa” is speaking to me through your book, which is something I pray for daily & I am sad to say, often disappointed. I struggle with this daily. As I am writing to you, my wife is reading your book and crying in bed next to me. We have been sharing the book chapter by chapter in order to finish it together. We just started this morning and she will probably be done before we go to bed this evening. Once again, I wish to sincerely thank you for your Gift “The Shack”. I pray that this book will provide you with everything you need to properly provide for your families needs as long as God sees fit. God bless you and all the hands that touched the making of this book!

By: Judy

Judy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:42:29 +0000

To me, this book is mainly about forgiveness. So many people have a problem with forgiving others that have hurt them. I want to share this book with all the people that have a hard time forgiving others.

When people cannot forgive, they are angry. They hurt the people they love the most because they cannot understand their anger. They need to truly trust in the Lord to be able to let it go.

I love my man so much, but he has a lot of anger. I want to share this book, but I know he won’t read it. His past has made him angry. He needs to learn to learn to forgive.

I pray that I can help him learn to forgive.

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:31:19 +0000

I also struggle with financial insecurity. I’ve gone through a few times in my life when I’ve had nothing and was about to find myself on the street literally. Yes, something always came up, but it was always a struggle. As I look to the future I see I may be unemployed next year at this time. I may be, yet again, on my way to complete financial liquidation.
As I read the posts of others I see people happy with nothing. I was never happy. I hung onto God desperately, but I was never happy.
What I want is to be so very rich that I don’t have to be employed at nonprofit community building and improvement. I want to be so rich that I can just supply what is needed such as staff to build community one person at a time and money to buy the things needed and give them away. And, I want to have my needs taken care of too. I would paint my house and put windows in the garage and barn where there are only blankets or boards now or nothing. I would put new floor tile in where the current tile is literally peeling off the floor in the kitchen and bathroom. I would put something up to keep the house from sagging in the middle.
Others look at my place with … well, it’s not good. I call it my palace because it’s all I have and it’s mine. I say it’s the house where God lives with me and too many cats. Yes, I inherited the cats with the house.
I’m a spinster with no children, no family because I was the only child of two only children (and everybody is dead before me), and I have plenty of money to tithe and pay my bills TODAY, but not fix my house.
For a living I work for a nonprofit that employs only me that made available a helpline for people needing to be connected to services, made 3 emergency funds for people who can’t pay their bills, helped bring in a new food shelf that gives people choice and is open 18 hours a week rather than the 4 that the others are open who just give you a box, and provided discounts for people needing help with prescriptions. God has done good through me. He’s done very good. But…
I’m poor and afraid and I just wish I felt loved by God (not just enjoyed) and financially very stable.
I am a believer. I’m never been into the terminology. I have a relationship with (yes, I’ve called him this for years) Papa and Jesus too. It’s happy and fun. We dance and sing and walk and talk and joke and admire the sky and the trees and the moon and the views… When I get to heaven we’re going horseback riding. But, I’ve been too poor too many times. I’m afraid he’ll just do it again to me.
I know I’ve gained things from being poor: time to help my parents as they each died, time and resources to build a public speaking business that eventually stopped when the internet became king, and a burning passion for helping the poor. All those things are good. Still, I don’t ever want to go through it again. NEVER! It’s just too hard.
I’m sorry this isn’t a happy post, but… I guess I need help with financial insecurity.

By: Heather

Heather — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:17:00 +0000

Ok, get it….thanks Papa!

By: Paula Santos

Paula Santos — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:39:21 +0000

So many people are concerned with financial security. I too had a battle with security in life and felt that it had to do with how much money I had. I grew up… well, I won’t go into all that, but lets just say that we were poor. My mother and her children were a product of the government. However; my poverty goes deeper than money.

This is hard to explain so I will just blurt out what I am feeling. I didn’t grow up in a family that was religious or had any faith in God. I spent many nights in homes of people I didn’t know and was exposed to much more than any child should ever be exposed to. Anyhow.. on to my point. Because of my childhood, I used to pray night after night that I would be saved from the life I was living. I had a realaitionship with Jesus but I wasn’t sure how I had it or why. I just prayed. Maybe it was because my mom put me on a bus every Sunday so that she would have some time alone. Who knows how I got to know God but I for some reason he stayed really close to me.

Over the years I found myself making so many mistakes in life and I probably shouldn’t be here to live and tell you all this. Now… 43 years later I am finally understanding and learning just how much Jesus loved me and just how much I should have trusted and put my life in his hands. I have bills like crazy but I don’t let it bother me the way it used to. I face challenges every day but I do my best to trust that God will take care of everything for me no matter what. For me, he has blessed me time and time again. I have everything I need in life and anything extra is just a bonus. For me, the greatest security that I have is knowing that God will take care of me.

I hope this made sense to you and remember that no matter how bad things seem at the moment, if you stay strong and believe then everything will be okay.

xoxo ~

Paula

By: Gweneth B.

Gweneth B. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:45:46 +0000

I just completed reading The Shack about an hour ago; then shortly afterwords visited the Website and started reading these blogs. It was as I read the blogs that I realized that I was never bound to the “financial (in)security” roller coaster until I “became a Christian,” that is accepted Christ into my life and began listening to a vast array of preachers. I think the “church” as it currently stands, has subscribed hook, line and sinker, to the culture of greed and entitlement, so prevalent in our society, and has repackaged it with a banner bearing the cross. This deception has so many of us believers bound to a cause (pursuit of material wealth/financial security) that has nothing to do with God, our relationship with God, or the purpose for which God has called us.

I am an attorney, and I, too have never had a job that I enjoyed or even liked. I am currently between jobs(over 5 months, now) and struggling with whether I hear God telling me to be still and trust Him, or whether I am doing enough to find my next income stream. In the meantime, my husband has been unemployed for even longer that I, and we currently live with my mother. I trusted God enough to believe He would have our home sold, so we could avoid foreclosure. Because I was able to fully let that go to God, (I had gotten to the point where I just didn’t care about foreclosure and credit rating) the one couple who looked at our house actually bought it. Still, I am having a diffcult time surrendering to God in regards to the rest of my financial future.

I take courage from all of you who have poured your hearts out here and will try to surrender my all to Papa. A friend of mine told me that when she faced some very difficult times where she felt she was on a cliff, she made the decision to give all her worries to God and not be stressed by them, so even if she should fall of the cliff she will remain in His will. I think that after reading The Shack and these postings, I have moved a step closer to her mindset.

Thanks for this forum.

By: Jeannie Fritz

Jeannie Fritz — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:27:04 +0000

I can honestly say we have known good times, and BAD. The funny thing is, decades later, it is those Bad times I remember most and with the greatest Joys! I can add, I wasn’t happy about the struggle, but the news is, once I stopped struggling, and was left only Trusting GOD, the pieces fell into place and I am happier than I have ever known. Things are good again, “great” by my new standards, but lacking in the world view. Yet I can say I am so Thankful for what I have and won’t worry about losing anything again. None of us can take one thing with us when we leave anyway.
This world is in trouble, what a glorious thing ! Why ? Because when you hurt alone, you can feel like giving up and a failure. You feel picked on, not just one in the same boat. When we are not alone, we can see the pain of others and reach out and share what we have , even if it is no more than a grain of mustard seed Faith or Hope.
Our grandparents told us about the depression. The happiest people were those who would share, do and help each other, while fighting to survive themselves. Times were hard, but people Loved more and cared for others and understood better. These same people worked hard and lived thier lives with Love and frugality for the rest of thier lives. Always ready and willing to share, but not wanting or needing much themselves. What freedom !!
PAPA is doing a GREAT Work right now, just seeing all the responses to “THE SHACK”, proves this. So many are being lead to GOD by this book, and so many that “were” close, but asleep, have been awoken and made alive again in new and precious ways.
The economy is working it’s own sort of miracle also. When we lose, we have no where to turn but to GOD !! Then we learn Who and What we can realy depend on and trust. GOD!! HEAVENLY FATHER and JESUS and The HOLY GHOST.
Rev. 13:17 says “that no man might buy or sell, SAVE HE THAT [HAS] THE MARK…” is coming!
Isaiah 1:23 We have been warned !
PAPA has warned us, and it is time we listened to GODS words and not the words of men.
I also have learned to Trust in The words of JESUS in the bible and not the words of men in churches. For each church has thier own set of rules, beliefs, agendas, and ways. They are not in agreement . Unlike the Teams that GOD shows us all to be. I spent 40 years not fitting and feeling like I was the wrong one, until through all my prayers and cries, GOD gave me the answer. “LOVE” is the only way, and we are to be witnesses, not Judges.
Look to JESUS and HIS life to see and understand GOD Himself. As HE was, so have “THEY” always been. This is the message of “The Shack” . As “THEY” are, we are to try to become. HOW ? LOVE !!!!
GOD bless all who are struggling with burdens and fears today. I know it is hard, but “Let Go and Let GOD !!!”
Love , Jeannie.

By: maria roynon

maria roynon — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:32:36 +0000

Saints of God, As i read the comments i realise that i am not alone, that there are others out there going through the same stuff with nothing to hold on too except Papa.

So let us hold on tighter than ever knowing that we also have each other and being confident that These days will pass, and imagine the the wonders of eternity in His presence. I love you all