LAW OF RECIPROCITY

Is There A Promise For You?

By Karen Lavengood
The 700 Club

CBN.com – “We were just doing what we could to make money come in… mowing grass, cleaning houses,” Jerry says.

“There were times we had our lights shut off,” Maryam recalls. “It was just very bad.”

For Jerry and Maryam Byrd, owning a home seemed out of the question. Jerry brought significant debt into their marriage. On top of that, they had recently moved and hadn’t found steady work yet. Despite their financial hardship, the couple decided early on that they would give a portion of what they made to the Lord.

“I believe that you’ve got to give to the Lord. It’s just imperative to give to the Lord if you’re going to receive financial blessings in your life,” Jerry says.

It seemed like a crazy idea to the financially-strained couple, but Jerry believed the Lord wanted to bless them with a house.

“It didn’t seem possible at all,” Jerry says. “I just felt like the Lord had given us that idea to purchase a home because it just not something either one of us probably think about.”

“I was thinking, ‘Yeah right. No jobs. We couldn’t even pay our rent there!’” Maryam says.

The couple set out looking for a home for their growing family. They found a foreclosed house on the market and they made an offer. Miraculously, it was accepted. The next step was the closing. They were told they would probably owe about 6,000 dollars.

“Amazingly when we got there, HUD decided they were going to pay all our closing costs for us,” Jerry says. “We were renting a home during this time. They decided to give us a thousand dollar renter bonus which is unheard of and somehow we wound up getting another 200 dollars. So we wound up at closing, getting this home, purchasing it, no money out of our pocket, and also walking away from the closing table with 1,200 dollars. We were shocked. We were just shocked, but we knew the Lord had his hand in it.”

The Byrds and their young daughter moved into their new home.

Then, Jerry had another idea. He suggested they buy another house as an investment property and flip it. With 500 dollars, a little paint and a lot of elbow grease, the couple fixed up a foreclosed house and sold it for nearly 20,000 dollars more than their purchase price.

“After we bought that first investment property, we decided, let’s just tithe off that.”

Around this time, the couple stumbled across The 700 Club.

“It was so good and so interesting,” Maryam says. “It was so encouraging, especially at the time in our life, the testimony of what the Lord’s done for others. And so we decided we’re going to give into that ministry because we just loved how they reached the whole world.”

In 2004, Jerry and Maryam decided to become partners with CBN. They also started a real estate business, which began thriving immediately.

“We went from that one house to buying two houses, three houses. We came to a point in our life when we wound up having at least five houses at one given time that we were working on. I mean, abundance began to come in, houses began to come. It’s like the windows of Heaven had just opened up on our lives,” he says.

As their income increased, so did their giving. Over the past 8 years, their financial worries have totally disappeared as they have successfully purchased and resold almost 65 homes.

“Since we’ve been giving to CBN we’ve seen great financial blessings in our lives,” Maryam says. “We’re able to have a better lifestyle ourselves. We’re able to reach around our neighborhood and help people who also need help and just to be a blessing to humanity because I believe that’s what the Lord’s called us to do.“

The Byrds saw the rewards of applying the Law of Reciprocity -- "Give and it shall be given to you" -- by giving to CBN. Here is your chance to give to the Lord and see your dollars bring truth to hurting people, feed and clothe needy children, keep The 700 Club Prayer Counseling Center phone lines operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and provide medical care to those who need a tangible touch of God's love. Become a CBN partner today!

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