Years ago the Christianity Today offices where I worked were on the top floor of the Washington Building about a half-block from the White House. From the conference room window we could see the White House grounds where Richard Nixon said goodbye to his staff after his resignation, and took off in his helicopter.

I rode a bus each day to get downtown from my rented home in the Virginia suburbs. It cost about 90 cents each way. If I walked a couple of blocks up the hill to the bus stop near the shopping center, the fare dropped a dime.  If I didn’t have the correct change, I could put a dollar bill in the machine and get a ride. But I wouldn’t get change for the difference. Bus drivers had been robbed so many times that they stopped carrying change.

One day, when I was struggling financially — again — and walking to the bus stop near my home, I realized that I only had a dollar bill, and no change. If I put it in the machine, I’d lose ten cents. Since I had prayed that morning about my financial situation and made a commitment to be more careful about my spending, I decided to walk the extra 1/4-mile up the hill so I could get change at the gas station. And I realized that if I made the hike, I’d also save ten cents on my fare…

As I made the turn at the end of my street to walk up the hill, a car pulled onto the shoulder of the road behind me. The driver honked his horn. I turned back and saw it was my neighbor, so I opened the passenger door. He asked where I was headed… coincidently, he was going about a block away from my office that morning. I got in and rode with him in the HOV lanes. He dropped me off in front of my office.

I thought of that incident recently when I heard a talk by retired Marine Colonel Myrl Allinder. In his speech he said, ”You don’t have a money problem. You have a spending problem.” That’s been the problem for many of us — some of us longer than others. We think we don’t have enough money, but actually, it’s just a habit of spending more than we make.

I’m convinced that when we prayerfully work to get our spending in line, the Lord mulitplies the results.

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much….     – Luke 16:10

And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.’     – Luke 19:17

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.    – II Cor. 9:10