Banking on a promise

ast week my family hit a crisis. I was in the city at a business meeting when I got a call from Mom that went something like this:
     “Hi, Nyx. I can't access our new bank account yet, and I need money for lunch and dinner.” With a bunch of my younger siblings at home, I felt distressed. I had a few bills in my wallet that would suffice for the meals, but I wouldn't be home until late.
     “Mom, do you have any money at all?” We lost our phone connection, and I spent the rest of the day fretting.
     When I arrived home that evening and asked her where she'd gotten the money for food, she said she'd borrowed it from the kids.
     “Yeah!” they chorused. “Mommy owes us money!”
     I looked at them and laughed as they continued. “She owes me a hundred pesos,” said one.
     “She owes me twenty!” another sister chimed in.
     “And mom owes me twenty too!” said my six-year-old brother.
     “Wow, you guys are rich!” I joked.
     The next morning I examined the kids' piggy banks. They were indeed empty. The kids talked about going to the arcade at the mall that afternoon, but I wondered how they'd do that with no cash. When I voiced my concerns, they were emphatic. “No, Mommy promised she'd repay us, and she will! We have money!”
     Hmmm, I thought. Such childlike faith. That was the kind of faith I needed at that moment. The rent was due soon—not to mention the electric bill, the phone bill, and all those other bills we dread.
     Then something Mom used to say came to mind. “The promises of God are as real as money in the bank.” As a youngster, I'd never really understood that. But in this crucial moment, while I thought about the trusting, positive attitude of my little sisters and brothers, it clicked. All the promises in God's Word were mine to claim.
     “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
     “No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).
     “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).
     Would those promises be real for me now? As real as money in the bank?
     The kids asked me to lead our morning devotional, and as I looked into their eager, trusting eyes, the subject for that devotional came to me—the lesson that they had taught me that day. “You know how you say you have money,” I began, “even though your piggy banks are empty? …”
     That afternoon, Mom was able to activate her new ATM card. That afternoon, too, we received word that someone overseas had made a donation to my volunteer work. So, needless to say, the kids got paid back, Mom cleared the bills, and I got my fulfilled promise. All it took was a tiny bit of childlike faith.