Yes, I know that wonderful scripture in 2 Timothy 1:7 where it says the following in the Old Afrikaans Translation:

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.”

Or as it is translated in the BIBLE FOR ALL:

“God has given us the Holy Spirit, and therefore we are not afraid. No, the Holy Spirit makes us strong and helps us to love people and to decide rightly what we should do. “

I had to learn every day in the presence of the Lord for the past 32 years to grasp these words in faith, along with a whole host of other scriptures that deal with money, the Lord’s total and faithful care for His children and His grace that is always sufficient for us.

I can also tell of hundreds of times that as a responsible man in my home, as a husband to my wife, and as a father to my children, I woke up at night with a heart racing a hundred miles an hour in my chest from fear and anxiety!

This is part of the reason why I had to learn new spiritual disciplines. Like getting up every morning at dawn before anyone else in the house, and there in the Lord's presence, grabbing His peace back in faith to also start that day with faith and with a newfound peace.

There I learned to recite a verse like Psalm 46:11 and 12 out loud to myself every morning:

“Be still and know that I am God, high above the nations, high above the earth.

The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”

I have to learn every morning to calm this body and brain of mine, which tries everything to protect my “flesh”, and therefore only wants to fight or flee, or “pass out” when nothing works!

I had to learn to, as the Hebrew word literally says, breathe (= do diaphragmatic breathing, as we call it), to get myself out of this survival mode of a heart that beats at 100 miles an hour, with hands that are cold and sweaty, and a throat that wants to tighten from fear and anxiety.

This helped me to rediscover (“know” in the language of the Psalm) and to experience, even in my own body, that the God I have come to know in Christ Jesus, is with me and in me, through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself is in and with me.

I had to choose every day, at the beginning of each day, to believe again for that day and to trust that my Lord will take care of me and my loved ones as He promised.

That is why I hold on to His promises every day, such as Psalm 23, Psalm 91, Philippians 4, and 2 Cor. 9:8.

“And God is able to make all things abound to you, that in all things, always having all sufficiency in all things, ye may have an abundance for every good work.”

It is so strange how you can learn to look at things differently in an instant! It is truly like being blind one moment, and the next moment someone gives you a new pair of glasses and everything is crystal clear!

Let me tell you something about my personal faith journey around finances, or money and my “daily bread” that I have always prayed about day after day in the Lord’s Prayer.

Remember, I accepted the Lord Jesus as Savior and as Lord in my life in faith on the 10th of October 1969, in my Standard 8 (or nowadays Grade 10) year. From that day on, I can testify with great gratitude, through the Lord’s abundant grace in my life, I serve and follow Jesus fully!

Two years later the Lord called me with the words of Isaiah 6:8: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” To which I, like an Isaiah, replied: “Here I am! Send me!”

Finally, I had the privilege of serving the Lord within the Dutch Reformed Church for almost 15 years, together with my beloved wife and two daughters, as a pastor and pastor couple. And like all Dutch Reformed ministers, I received a stipend (or salary) every month for what I did there.

Until that day, October 10, 1993, the day we were baptized as believers as a family. Then the Lord very clearly told me the following two things:

“You resign as a Dutch Reformed minister, because what I am now calling you to do and what you must do now, you cannot do as a Dutch Reformed minister.”

And: “You will never again accept a salary from anyone for anything you do in My Name and service!”

The Lord continued: You have a proverb that says: “Whoever eats his bread, speaks his word!” Meaning, if people pay you a salary for what you do, they ultimately expect you to say what they want you to say! And says the Lord: It will never be like that again in your life and ministry! From this moment on, I am your only Lord, but also your Total Provider! As long as you do what I tell you in obedience, I will make sure that your bills are paid!

That moment, now 32 years ago, changed everything in my life around money and finances!

Let me admit right away: It was also the most challenging faith path I have ever walked with the Lord in my life as His child!

I have always known that He was the Total Provider and Provider in my life and my family's life! He has always taken care of us and given us, as we pray, "our daily bread"! Whether it was through that allowance that I received from the church treasury month after month, or whether it was through all the other entrepreneurial businesses that my wife and I were busy with in our free time.

But from that day in 1993 it was as if I had to learn from the beginning to look with eyes of faith at my finances, how I budgeted, and what we as a family were allowed to buy or did not “have the money” not to buy.

And this new path of faith forced me to start the day early every morning with a new discipline where I started the day “in the presence of the Lord”!

I will tell you more about that next time.

Let me conclude with the words of 2 Corinthians 9:8 that the Lord used to lead me to a new peace in this regard as well.

Please allow the Lord Himself to speak to you through this verse what you need to hear today: “And God is able to make all things abound to you, that in all things, always having all sufficiency in all things, ye may have all sufficiency in every good work.”

Lord, in Your presence we see things in perspective, and see better what is important and what is completely unimportant.

There we become quiet and come to peace.

There we discover that all these things that steal our attention all day long are actually not as important as what the world around us wants to make them.

Oh, and all those things that we can worry about so much...!

No wonder You teach me: Seek first My Kingdom and My will, and then all other things will fall into place!

There at Your feet I learn to put down all my worries and fears, to look anew and to think anew.

It is truly as You teach me in Your Word there in Philippians 4:

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

Oh, Your peace, that peace that only You can give, changes everything! It is so overwhelming! How I desire it every day, Lord!

Every morning that I sit in Your presence and calm down by breathing calmly and pleasantly, things happen to me that help me to start this day anew!

There at Your feet I learn to put things down and choose again to look at things with the glasses of faith.

There I discover anew Your unconditional love for me. Which envelops me and becomes for me this safe, soft place where I can just relax and discover anew that Your grace is enough for me.

I am capable of all things through You who gives me the strength!

There in Your presence so many of Your Psalms become the words of my soul.

Like Psalm 23, and Psalm 91.

Every morning, I can only remind myself of Your word of promise to me and my family there from 2 Corinthians 9:8:

“And (my) God is able to give you all things abundantly, so that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound in every good work.”

There at Your feet I discover that I am simply Your earthly steward of Your property. Because everything “I have” belongs to You.

Yes, even the money that comes in from business, or farming, or in whatever way You provide, is a gift of grace, intended to bless me and my loved ones and provide for what we need.

But I can trust You also when there is not always enough for us. Yes, I can trust You to not only always give us what we need, but also so that there will be enough to give generously where You show!

Haven’t You taught me to look at all this with the eyes of Luke 16!

“And I say to you, Make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

“He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If therefore you have not been faithful in handling the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches? If you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will be devoted to the one and despise the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Yes, it's true!

I have experienced in my own time with the Lord that because He loves us, He also sees those times when we talk to Him, whether it's praying or just talking, as an invitation from you to do in your life what He wants to do there!

Of course it's going to be very dangerous for you, for your ego and stubbornness!

If the Lord takes you, then He changes you!

Then He sees it as your invitation to allow Him to do what He does there in Romans 12:2, also in you.

You remember what it says there, right?

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to discern what the will of God is, what is good and acceptable and perfect in His sight.”

That term in the Greek that have been translated as “mind” is not just your thoughts and how you think! No, it is a call to allow God to change you completely, your entire brain with all its parts, your entire nervous system and everything that is stuck in it!

Those of you who have come to visit me and allowed me to help you process things like traumatic experiences that have happened to you, will know that I teach you that much of that hurt does not just lie in what you can remember and can recount. No, much of the trauma and hurt is stuck in your body, as it were.

Our “mind” or brain is so integrally connected to the rest of our body, that part of the healing or change happens when we give the Lord a chance to heal that part of the hurt and trauma too!

I further discovered that this piece of change or healing happens where we as “two or three” believers are together, because as Jesus himself said: This is where He is present in a very special way to do what He wants to do among us and in us!

It says in Matthew 18:20: “... for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”