Saturday, February 1, 2014

"You Make All Things Work Together For My Good..."



Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

God has done it again, He has shown himself to be everything we need! Gary and I are in the process of buying this house that we love. As I mentioned in my last post there have been some worries and I am the consummate worrier of the family. It's my job to worry and I take my job very seriously. I pray and pray and tell God that I will trust Him but then I turn around and worry about what I just gave over to Him. My mom used to say "Don't be an Indian Giver" which I know isn't politically correct these days but she meant once you give something to God, don't keep taking it back to worry about it a little more, I am very guilty of doing this. 

So we accepted the counter offer on the house that had the seller paying a lower contribution to our closing costs, I was excited and I knew that God had this all in his hands, so I wasn't worrying. However, I was trying to figure out how we were going to adjust our budget to include this additional amount. I know that nothing surprises God and that He will make a way. I kept telling myself that God will make a way for this, if this is His will then He will make a way. So I had been doing pretty good in the not-worrying-so-much department. 

yesterday Gary came home with his W2 form, which was the last form we needed in order to file our taxes. So after we went out to dinner to celebrate this new journey we are beginning I sat down not eh computer, opened up Turbo Tax and started doing our taxes. When I got to the fun part, where we get to see our refund amount I was pretty pleased with the refund we are going to get. As I sat there looking at the number on the screen I thought "That number sounds familiar" so I flipped open my "Home Buying Journal" (my notebook where I write down EVERYTHING about this house buying adventure, including my prayers) and I looked at the page where Gary and I had crunched the numbers to see what our new amount would be for closing costs when we accepted the offer, and there it hit me, our closing cost amount was EXACTLY $3 less than the amount of our tax refund! I immediately went in and woke up Gary to tell him that God had done it again, that God had made a way. The song by Jesus Culture Your Love Never Fails immediately came to mind, and the verse that repeats that says "You make all things work together for my good"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVPr1fI7acM

God is so good, His love never fails and He will lead us on this journey to our new home, and "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord" 

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Help Me Find It

"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11


It has been a very long time since I have written on this blog and felt I needed to write again. We are in the process of a very unexpected move. This has been tough because the circumstances that have led to this required relocation caused some bitterness and hurt feelings of family members. It came as a surprise to Gary and I but nothing surprises God and He will use this experience to teach us more about how to follow him and rely on him. Ok so on to the good parts!

So for the last couple months we have been looking for a house and we had been praying and asking God to lead us to the house we are supposed to be in. There were several that we loved but they each ended up under contract before we were able to make an offer. This past Saturday we found a house we love! We made an offer on Sunday, and the offer was accepted yesterday evening but they changed the percentage they would contribute to the closing costs. We asked for 4% and they offered only 2%. The response to our offer came in at 9:30pm so I went in an woke Gary up so we could discuss this change and decide if we wanted to accept it or counter. We were really going back and forth about what we should do so finally, we decided that we would pray about it and sleep on it and make a decision the next day. So that's what we did. 

This morning we decided to accept their counter offer with the lower contribution. After making the decision I was a little worried that we should have tried to counter with a little higher contribution. As I was starting my car to leave for work I was praying and saying "God is this what we should do, is this the path You are leading us down?" the very first song that played on my radio after I asked this was Sidewalk Prophets' Help Me Find It. Every time I am making a big decision the words of this song are prayer: "If there's road I should walk help me find it, if I need to be still give me peace for the moment, whatever Your will can you help me find it?" This song always comes to mind when I am making a big decision, as soon as I heard this come on, I knew it was meant for me, I knew it was God reminding me that He is in charge and that nothing surprises him. He knows his plans for us, He knows where we are headed. At that moment tears flowed down my cheeks, and a wonderful sense of peace came over me, and I knew that no matter what happens God is in charge. He will lead us where we need to go. I was all worried about all the things that can go wrong in this purchase journey, but now I'm not, things will work out the way God plans them to work out. If it is His will, then this house will become ours, and if it isn't then that only means He has something even better out there for us. We just have to be faithful, we have to walk the path when it is time to walk and be still when we need to be still.