She Made a Leap of Faith Into Blessing and Favor
Lauretha Shelton was earning her graduate degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling while working full-time as a substitute teacher when the Covid-19 Pandemic hit.
She remembers, “When we first heard about it, we was like, ‘How is this gonna work? When are we gonna go back? Are we gonna be paid?’”
She was relieved to hear that her job would be secure until the end of the school year. Then, a few days after Lauretha started teaching online from home, she saw some pandemic-relief stories on The 700 Club.
“It was so many cars. So many people being unemployed,” she recalls. “It was like a sea of cars during the pandemic that people was actually lining up for food. And I remember this one story about a family, how that they didn't have money or food and someone came to them and brought them groceries.”
She liked that CBN was helping but was startled by what happened next.
“The Lord impressed in my heart to give,” she shares. I was like, ‘Give? Now? In the middle of a pandemic?’ And I was like, kind of fearful. Rent has to paid, lights have to paid. Those things came from me and me only.”
She was already tithing at church, and there wasn’t much wiggle room in her budget. Still, she chose to be obey God and give to CBN anyway.
“It was truly a leap of faith,” she admits. “I remember the scripture said, ‘A good man's steps are ordered by the Lord.’ And I know if the Lord is leading me, all things is gonna work together for my good. And I trust God for that.”
As she gave, all of Lauretha’s needs were met. Then, right before the new school year started, she was let-go.
“What I began to do of course, me and my prayer group, we began to pray,” she reports. “And it was like a whole month, and I had got down to my last hundred dollars that I had in the bank. I still gave tithes and offering out of that.”
She found a job that she liked but was waiting to hear back about being hired. Lauretha says, “The next following week, I was able to start in the new school district. And pay continued on.”
Before long, Lauretha was accepted as an unpaid intern to fulfill her graduate degree requirement. It meant a cut in teaching hours and income. Yet, as she kept giving to her church and to CBN…
“I got a phone call, and it was the supervisor from this retirement center,” Lauretha recalls. “She said, ‘You put in an application a long time ago for us for an activity person,’ and I said, ‘I did?’ And she said, ‘Yeah. How would you like to work for us?’”
That weekend work paid enough to help cover her living expenses, but she still owed $3500 to her university. She contacted the finance department, and because she always made out-of-pocket payment, on time, they decided to write off the entire balance. Soon the company she was interning for offered her a full-time job, making twice what she made as a teacher. A promotion and a raise followed. Lauretha says she knows why all these good things happened.
“When you're obedient to the Lord,” she explains, “the Lord will bless you and give you favor. When you meet the needs of others, He meets your needs. He said that, ‘I will open up the windows of heaven.’ Not window, not one. But the windows, with an 's', of heaven, ‘and pour you out blessings, that you don't have room enough to receive.’”
She encourages others to listen to God’s call to give to CBN.
“You are meeting needs, you are doing ministry, and God will be pleased with your life,” Lauretha declares. She concludes, “Even in the middle of a pandemic, you can still trust God. He changes not. There’s always gonna be a time where this bill needs to be paid or that bill needs to be paid. But if you trust God and just do, according to what He says, then you will, beyond the shadow of a doubt, be blessed.”
