Sometimes I think God likes to show up at the last minute
for me. I know, I know… God is always
right on time. Well, that is easy to
say, but hard to swallow when you are living it out. I guess Him seemingly showing up late for me does
seem to stretch my faith, deepen my spiritual roots, and challenge me to trust
Him no matter what. When I think about
how He has always showed up and taken care of me in the past, I can’t help but trust
Him in the present. Or at least I
should. For some reason when it comes
down to times of testing, I feel the stress, I activate the worry, and here we
go again.
You would think I would have this figured out by now, but I guess not.
You would think I would have this figured out by now, but I guess not.
Have you ever been there friend? Caught in the middle of a battle between faith
and fear… stress and peace, freaking out and trusting God blindly… Well, if you haven’t I’m sure those days are
coming. How do we know how deep our
roots are if they aren’t tested by the strong winds of difficulties? How do we know if we really trust God
completely if our faith is never tested?
In the long run it’s all a GOOD thing, but in the middle of the testing
it is NO fun!
Recently, I just finished a book study that has really challenged
my thinking in this area of my life.
I’ve seen lots of positive changes in ME as a result which is good! The book is called, “Unglued”, by Lysa
Terkeurst.
What is this “Unglued” I am speaking about? It is what happens to US at times when
someone or something bumps into our happy and messes up our pretty plans. Let me give you an example. It could be finding out you are having
overnight guests’ only hours before their arrival…. Your house is trashed, the
fridge is empty, and you have no idea where the clean sheets are for that spare
bed. Yikes! How would you respond?
Lysa shares a story of how her husband went to take a shower
and there were NO clean towels in the whole house! He waited patiently for the delivery of her
towel of choice while she hunted. There
were none in her room, none in the kids bathroom, and nothing clean in the
dryer or washer. Uh, oh! She had to revert to the old towels piled up
to wash the dogs. They were clean, but
raggedy. They would have to do! She delivered the towel to her husband and he
recognized it as one of the dogs’ towels and asked if it was clean. That was the last straw… she blew! “Unglued”…I hope you are catching what I am
meaning now.
The book was filled with lots of great ideas on how to
manage this state of “Unglued”. Through
it I learned what kind of “Unglued” I am, why I become unglued, and
alternatives to reacting in that manner.
The choice is mine! I can’t
change what happens TO me, but I can choose HOW I will respond to it! This book has been life-changing for me… only
because I am applying what I learned.
All that to say that recently I faced one of those faith-testing
moments and I reacted out of character for me.
I realized through the study that I am tempted to become “Unglued”
mostly when I am STRESSED or SICK. Well, stress has been in abundance
lately. Let me explain. Late spring our landlords decided to put the
house we are renting from them on the market.
We had officially until our lease was up (August 1st) to find
somewhere else to live. I was not
surprised especially because this is the THIRD time this has happened to us.
One even said, “Wow, this looks better than it did when we lived here. Don’t tell my wife.” By the end of each lease we were offered the chance to buy the house, but had to decline. As a result, they decided to sell and while we were in it... since it looked so good! Needless to say, each one sold quickly!
Now here we are again.
We were actually looking for houses to buy this time. The house we are in is too small for us long
term. We started looking when they
listed the house, but couldn’t find anything that worked for us. We were hoping the house wouldn’t sell
quickly, but had no such luck there.
Those freak out feelings started to rise up within me AGAIN, but my
reaction was different this time. I
stopped when I realized I was becoming stressed. I paused, I pondered, and I prayed. I had anxious feelings about the future, but
I knew God would take care of us.
In one weeks time we switched gears from pursuing houses to
buy to looking for one to rent. Overwhelmed feelings continued to threaten to
suffocate my spirit, it felt like God was late AGAIN. But, for some reason I felt God’s peace
consuming me as I thought about the future.
It felt like I was walking in a new kind of faith for me… “Blind Faith”.
A scripture came to mind immediately…
“For we walk by faith,
NOT by sight…”
2 Corinthians 5:7 (KJV)
Through a God turn of events, we were offered the house to
rent at an incredible price. We haven’t
even seen the house or signed a lease, but we have such an incredible peace
about it all. It seems from the outside
that God has given us each our heart’s desire in this house. Check out our wish list of answered prayers
for this house already below…
Me- house large enough to have lots of people over, room of
my own to have an office, more private with space between neighbors, room for
overnight guests.
My husband- wooded area, large yard, space for a garden,
garage, place for his own office, space between neighbors, off the road, he
mentioned randomly wanting fruit trees in the yard (we will have many).
My boys – they wanted to be close to the river to fish (its
right down the road), one wanted chickens (not sure why he wants them, but
there are 9 chickens on the property for us to keep), one wanted a garden (there
is a raised garden already there), and they wanted a basketball goal (there
too!)
My dog – presently she has to be on a chain when she goes
outside. I’m not sure what her dreams
were for a new house, but I am thinking maybe she wanted to be able to run
freely when chasing squirrels and birds.
She is probably tired of choking herself on the chase. Funny...
God even answers the unspoken prayers of a dog. He is into every detail of this.
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Wow! God has already
answered a lot of our prayers in this house and we haven’t even seen the INSIDE yet! We are flooded with peace and
excited about the future. Yay God!
Blind Faith – trusting God with the details
of my life confidently even though
I can’t see what the outcome might be in the
end.
He is faithful friend! Trust Him with your worries today and watch
Him work behind the scenes of your life to do amazing things!
Living to leave a legacy,
Julie
In my experience it seems each time you exercise blind faith it becomes easier and you lean on it much sooner and eventually becomes instinct reaction. I have also noticed that when God doesn't have to wait on us to set ourselves aside and have blind faith he can act sooner and the end results are even greater. Almost similar to how you feel blessing your child when they do things right the first time versus when you have to remind them and wait on them to decide to do what you wanted.
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