TESTIMONY OF THANKFULNESS

TESTIMONY OF THANKFULNESS – DON WOODRUFF | BREAD FOR BELIEVERS          

I have been creating devotionals since 2013 (when I retired), and I thought
I should share how I got to this point in my life. Hopefully you have seen
these devotionals on Facebook or LinkedIn (or received them in email as
a member of one of my distribution lists).
You can view them the devotionals at:
    utvolwoody.com
(there are close to 2000 devotionals and I am adding new ones weekly;
the site includes a Search for finding devotionals pertaining to a particular
topic or scripture).

They are free, and if you enjoy them, select the “follow” option and you
will receive notification via email when a new devotional is added. As of
this writing, people in all 50 states and more than 80 foreign countries
are viewing them.

STEP 1 – PREPARATION:
When I was thirteen years old, I felt restless and knew there was a need
in my life. That need was Jesus Christ and I went down during the invitation
at my church with nothing more to say than, “I want to be saved”.

I didn’t know how to articulate my need, I just knew that I wanted Jesus
to be a part of my life. I truly believe that I received salvation on that day,
but I had absolutely no idea how much that decision encompassed. As a
result of my lack of understanding, I have made some bad choices since
that day.

However, I discovered that I was not perfect because I was saved, but I was
still an imperfect person covered by the blood of Jesus. What is amazing is
that even though I made some bad choices, God kept me on a short leash
because He had other plans for me (and He would reveal His plans for me
once I understood the real meaning of being redeemed).

Years later some of those plans started to unfold for me.

First of all He put me in a position of teaching ten year old boys. What an
experience! But you know, in the midst of trying to corral and teach those
boys, He was preparing me for another step in my journey of serving Him.
While teaching those boys I discovered that my task was merely to present
what God wanted them (and me) to hear, and let Him take care of what
happens next.

No matter how restless the boys were while I was trying to teach,
they were amazingly attentive. Whenever they would answer the
questions I asked them, they were obviously listening even when
it seemed they weren’t! That was the result of God’s work, not mine.

STEP 2 – TITHING:
My wife and I were giving to the church, but not actually tithing. Tithing
was a very interesting process for us. We started out by fulfilling what we
felt was an obligation and transitioned into enjoying and looking forward
to contributing to His kingdom.

First God convicted us that we should start tithing. We made the decision
that I’m sure many have made – we would start tithing on the net pay
(since that was the only ‘real’ money we saw). There was one time when
we needed money and “out of the blue” we received a rebate check from
an insurance company!

After we had been tithing for awhile, He convicted us to start tithing on
the gross amount. We ‘bit the bullet’ and obeyed, but never had any real
financial stress.

Finally, God convicted us to give more than our tithe, and this is where
it became very interesting. We obeyed and held our breath, but again we
did not encounter any financial problems. In fact, when I received my
raise the next year, the tithe we had been giving was ten percent of my
new salary.

We ‘upped’ our tithe again and the next year when I received my raise,
it happened again – the tithe from the previous year was ten percent of
my new salary. It happened again the third year – three years in a row!

Of course that’s when Satan started trying to plant ideas in our heads like,
    “You can determine what your salary for the
      next year will be by how much you tithe this year!”
Sounded like a logical thing to do, but fortunately we didn’t fall for his
scheme. The fourth year of giving above our tithe, my raise left us short
of what we had been tithing the previous year and we realized that God
must have a sense of humor. It was as if He was saying to us,
    “Now, what are you going to do?”

It helped us to focus on how He was blessing us and not on the monetary
amounts. It wasn’t too long after that when we were astounded by His
blessings. I received a ten percent salary increase, followed by a fifteen
percent increase, followed by an eleven percent increase in less than a
twelve month period! We learned that what some say is true,
    “You can’t out give God”
But more importantly we learned the blessings of obedience.

STEP 3 – TRUSTING:
Trusting was another area where the Lord taught us that He
is in control. We learned that sometimes we have to make
choices based on His decisions. and not ours.

I had a good job as an Applications Manager at a successful company
and was responsible for the majority of the IT systems there. Then one
day I received a call from someone I knew at another company asking
if I would consider managing a Technical Support group. Of course, I
knew nothing about Tech Support and told him that, but he said that
I understood Information Technology (IT), and he felt I would be a good
fit based on my IT background.

I believe that sometimes God makes things somewhat difficult in order
to teach us things (even though we may not know it at the time). Since I
knew Technical Support would put me in an uncomfortable position,
I asked for some additional requirements before making a decision.
This resulted in a three month delay in order for the company to get
my requests approved. Still, I was unsure about making the move,
but after my wife and I prayed about it, I decided to follow what we
‘thought’ was God’s Will.

When I first arrived there, I discovered that the company really didn’t
need the group I was managing. After praying and frantically searching
for something valuable for us to do, I was able to acquire full support of
the most widely used system within the company. Without sharing all the
details, I believe that God caused this to happen. There were other groups
that all had to agree on moving the system to our group, and they did!

STEP 4 – TEACHING:
Okay, the first thing I should mention is, there are at least three things
I don’t enjoy doing – reading, preparing, and presenting. Ask me to be
a participant in athletics or music and I was more than ready, but not
reading, preparing, and presenting!

Interestingly enough, God had pre-determined that my destiny was teaching
and sharing His Word which involved the three things I didn’t enjoy doing.
Our Minister of Education (Bobby Bragg) at Ellendale Baptist Church asked
me one day if I would be interested in teaching a married couples class. Of
course a red flag went up for me and I replied, “Let me pray about it” hoping
he would find someone else and forget that he had asked me.

About three months later, Bobby asked me again if I had gotten any
direction on teaching the class. I thought about how I ‘got out of it’
the last time he asked and I replied,
    “Let me pray about it some more”

Little did I know the plans God had for that class and whomever agreed
to teach it would be blessed as they watched God at work in a mighty way
(more on this later). After the second offer from Bobby, I was restless for
the next three months. I prayed about it off and on and finally went to
Bobby and said,
    “I’ll try teaching it and see how it goes”

Bobby immediately started smiling and when I asked him why, he said,
    “Do you remember six months ago when
      I asked you about teaching this class?”
When I sheepishly replied, “Yes”, he said that he went to the members
of the class and told them that I would be their new teacher, and they
had been praying for me for the entire six months! That, explains the
restlessness I was feeling for months.

Now, to be honest, my plans were to ‘endure’ teaching this class of
ten people for one year, and then give it to someone else. However,
God’s plan was different than mine and I have been teaching the
class for well over forty years.

Earlier I mentioned the opportunity of seeing God at work – He took
that small class of ten people and grew it to an enrollment of around
one hundred and thirty people (and I was blessed by watching Him at
work).

Not only did He increase the size of the class, but in order to reduce it
to a manageable number, seven classes were spawned from that class
(which meant that seven more people committed to teaching). When I
pause and think about it, if I had not agreed to teach the class, I would
have missed out on seeing what He could do.

Oh, I may have heard about it, but I wouldn’t have been able to watch
Him at work firsthand. Not only that, but I wouldn’t have been blessed
like I was through teaching (which was in obedience to His Will for me).

He was with me when reading, preparing and presenting the lessons. But
more than that, He would give me thoughts while I was teaching; thoughts
that were not in my notes. Additionally, He taught me the importance of
having interactive discussions as opposed to lecturing. Using this method
I found I could learn even more from the comments of the members of the
class which enhanced what God had already given me to share/discuss.

He also showed me how to handle controversial topics and comments from
members of the class. He impressed on me a way of encouraging everyone
to participate in the discussions, and how to apply His Word to everyday
life – ‘where the rubber meets the road’.

I could go on and on about other things He taught me, but the bottom
line is, I learned how He blesses those who obey Him, even if it requires
leaving our comfort zone.

STEP 5 – RETIREMENT:
Have you ever thought about what retirement life would be like?
A time when you basically go into idle mode except for enjoying
the things you wanted to do, but never had enough time.

Be prepared for the unexpected! When God has plans for you, then you
can be in for a surprise (and the good news is, He does have plans for all
who confess their faith in Him).

I mentioned earlier that I am not someone who enjoys reading, preparing
and presenting, so of course, the Lord decided I would be a bible teacher.
However, there is one more thing that I do not enjoy – writing. So guess
what, God convicted me to start distributing His devotionals when I retired.

I’m not talking about starting a year or so after I retired, He wanted me to
start on day one of retirement. This has been an amazing experience as I look
forward each day to see what the Lord wants to communicate to others and to
me.

Some nights I have ideas for a devotional, but He changes it to something
else the next morning. This is a gentle reminder to me that these are His
devotionals and I’m just His distributor. As of this writing, His devotionals
are being read in all 50 states and over 80 foreign countries, so I know He
is using what He gives me to distribute.

What I enjoy the most is the way He guides me in showing the practical
application of His Word. The mentality of ‘where the rubber meets the road’
that He taught me when He called me teach a Bible class, has continued as
He gives me the content for the devotionals each day.

Now you can see how the Lord orchestrated my life over the years to
prepare me for sending out His devotionals. But He didn’t stop there,
He also inspired me to write and publish a book (ugh, more writing!).
I doubt that I will ever recover the expense of getting the book published,
but I am confident He has (or is) using it in the life of at least one person.
It is now out of print and I am awaiting the Lord’s guidance to see if I
should publish another book.

I have written a second book titled, “I’m Saved, Now What?” The publisher
liked it and suggested promoting it, but then a strange thing happened. I
felt that God wanted me to put that one on hold, and start a third project
which I am currently working on and awaiting His direction.

Many years later I discovered the reason He didn’t inspire me to get
the second published. Even that far in advance, He had plans for me
to use it for creating a devotional series to include in my distributions.
As confirmation that this was His purpose, that series has had close to
130,000 views and continues to add to that number.

Hopefully I have adequately explained how God has taken someone
who does not like writing and converted him into creating daily
devotionals (with the content provided by Him) and writing three
books…who knows what’s next? Yes, God still performs miracles
in our lifetime!

SUMMARY:
Like everyone else, I am still a work in progress and still make bad choices,
but the Lord has created in me a desire to serve Him and to point others to
Jesus. It didn’t happen overnight, but it started with a desire to have Jesus
in my life and a hope that God would change my life and focus.

I needed God to be the leader of my life, and to influence my thoughts,
my words, my actions, my decisions, and my service in His ministry.
There is a song titled, “I’m Just A Nobody” that has this phrase in it,
    “Why You ever chose me, has always been a mystery”

When I think of the mistakes I’ve made in my life, and the many times
I have disappointed the Lord with my failures, this phrase resonates
with me in a big way. At the same time, it is proof to me that God can
(and will) take a ‘nobody’ and find a way to use imperfect people in a
way that will fulfill His perfect Will.

My hope is that many reading this will decide to turn their lives over
to the Lord completely. Hopefully others will have a new desire to
experience and enjoy the exciting journey of serving the Lord in the
capacity He has chosen specifically for them.

I hope that others will give up their selfishness so they will not miss out
on the opportunities He has given them, and the joy that is included in
His plan designed specifically for them
(and He has plans for everyone who claims to be His followers).

Serving the Lord can have its challenges, and especially when He
calls us to serve in a way that makes us feel uncomfortable, But
the good news is, when He saved us, He equipped us to serve Him
in an area of His choosing.

He gave us a ‘spiritual gift’ designed especially for us to use for His
purposes, and in addition, He gave is the Holy Sprit to guide us and
give us the confidence we need to serve where He has called us. Don’t
miss out on answering His call, and committing to serve Him in any
area, for as long as He wants you to serve. Your will never regret it!

BLOG: utvolwoody.com