As some (all?) of you know, life has been a faith-grower for me and Nathan for alot of this past year. Last September was when everything happened with the church and Nathan was out of work. (if you don't know the story, click here) All winter we were being stretched to have faith that we would be provided for (financially and otherwise). It was also a winter of healing. Spring brought our official resignation from the church and the decision to pursue seminary...yet another step of faith. When we put our house on the market last March, we expected it to be sold within a couple of weeks, but five months later it is still unsold. The sale of the house is to be a large chunk of our tuition. We made the decision to move to Saskatchewan on July 1 because we believed that 6 weeks with family would be a good transition between our last home and our next one. These 6 weeks have, indeed, been exactly what we have needed, but as our house still sits empty and unsold, our faith has been stretched all the more.
As we walked down the street in Hudson Bay this week, Nathan and I were talking about how God provides and how we really need our house to sell before we leave for school. I looked up and saw, painted on the side of a building, "Have faith." I smiled at the reminder to keep faith.
This morning as I was reading my Bible, I came across two verses that also struck me and encouraged me to rest in the fact that God has things under control.
The first was Psalm 27:13-14. "I remain confident of this: I will see the godness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD."
And the other one was Proverbs 20:24. "A person's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand their own way?"
It is so interesting to see what God puts in front of us to encourage us on our way.
In addition to our house needing to sell, we just found out that our car needs a new clutch (near $1000 repair) and we still haven't paid for things like health insurance, house insurance, car insurance, etc. We know that God will stretch our savings to cover our needs and we are already excited to see God work and move and grow our faith some more.
(PLEASE know that I am not sending out a plea for financial assistance, but merely letting you know about the faithfulness of the God we serve)
We have faith that our house will sell before we leave in 8 days. Please join us in prayer for this. Pray that our faith and joy will not get clouded with the looming shadow of bills and obstacles. Pray that we will not get discouraged when things seem to go wrong. And please pray for the person who will buy our house in these next few days. I so desire to grow from this experience and not get bogged down by the details. I want to keep my focus on God's command to learn and grow and be fruitful at seminary...I can't let distractions like $$$ get in the way of that.
God is constantly growing the faith of his children. How is God growing your faith today?
3 comments:
Praying for you guys.
I had a conversation with a friend about a week ago about how we'll often have a sense of where God is leading or what God is asking us to do, but very often how it plays itself out is not at all like we've planned or expected. God is full of surprises and wise way beyond us. Keep clinging to faith!
UGH! Sorry about the clutch. Praying the house sells this week!
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