God's Way and Thoughts

The above bible verse describes my experiences over the past years, I cannot tell all He has done. God is many things to many people, but to me 'He is the I Am'.

It is usual to have expectation concerning certain issues or have desires on what we want God to do, believing that He will fulfill our heart's desires or that our expectations will not be cut off. That's absolutely true as written in Psalm 21:2 "You have given him his heart's desire, And You have not withheld the request of his lips" Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

It's good to have plans or be exact in our prayers, for instance, a young lady or man looking for a life partner will have a list of qualities desired in such a partner or a young man having a list of the techs he wants in his first car. Sometimes we get exactly what we have desired, and sometimes we can receive less and most times it is much more. I don't' know about you but my desire is to get much more than I have asked for, because that ultimately is the best. 

To get much more, we have to surrender our thoughts, our ways and ask according to His will.

1 John 5:14 "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us."

Testimony

Last year, my spouse got a job in another State and we began maintaining two households. To say it was easy is a lie, the stress physically, psychologically, and financially was great, so we made a painful decision to move the family. We were members of a wonderful and supportive church family, the kids loved their teachers and school, and the  move was to be in the middle of the school year, so this made the kids cranky, weepy and sad. Apart from dealing with the emotional upheaval of the move was also the physical. Packing up a house, and also looking for a new place all within a month was a challenge.

My Spouse and I made up a basic list of the type of rental accommodation we wanted, primary of which was an excellent and top rated school district, good commuting distance to work, certain type of house features and affordable monthly rent. Our search began in select areas we had researched upon, we immediately found one that was within our set parameters but the traffic getting anywhere was horrendous and lease agreement was not favorable. So we turned our search to another area of the city, all rentals we found was in the area that the elementary school had the lowest rating in an excellent school district and expected rent was higher than our benchmark and we turned our search to another area again.

By this time, we had two weeks left and we were beginning to wonder if we made the right decision to move. A friend asked me how far with the move and I told her about our challenges in finding a place to move to. I remember telling her of our past experiences that we usually get a house to move to at the last minute and that was not my desire this time around. During the 3rd week of our search, I came across a listing that was in a previously jettisoned area. This house was tailor made for our list, excellent schools, few minutes to work for my spouse, it had the required number of rooms and baths etc. An appointment was made and my spouse had a look through. The house was as listed but was situated in an exclusively business environment, no yard for kids to play in, no close by neighbors. Over that weekend, we looked at our options and decided to have a second walk through of the house, our thought was that if there was a washer/dryer connection in the basement (my spouse did not check the basement the first time), we will settle and take the house. After getting in touch with the realtor, we learnt, we will have to pay more if we want the use of the basement. This was unexpected and disappointing and the walk through revealed no connections.

 All through this period, we had always raised  the issue in prayer to God, we make mention of what we desired in the new house\area we are moving to. We trusted and believed that God will answer our prayers. So our inability to get a suitable place of accommodation was making us wonder and ask ourselves if we made the right decision.

Eight days to our move out day, I attended the Tuesday women's prayer meeting at the church, they asked about the move and I said " we don't have a place to move to yet but God will provide". We all laughed at my statement but these wonderful sisters joined their faith to mine and prayed with me. Overnight Wednesday, I could not sleep and I spent time praying to God requesting that He speak to me, direct us to the accommodation that has been prepared for us. I decided to wait quietly in his presence. Then I heard Isaiah 40 within me, I picked up my bible and read the whole chapter and my soul was comforted that God cares about me, He sees all I have passed through and that none is his equal as all power resides with him. While meditating on what was spoken, I was given another scripture Isaiah 55 which I read through. This chapter was a call to repentance, to surrender my expectations to God because his way is infinitely better than my own ways and his thoughts better than my thoughts. I was made to understand that God's way brings peace, joy and prosperity.

The next day, I shared what happened with my spouse, telling him what was spoken to my heart concerning our house search which was to tear up our list and trust in God's provision of his best for our family. We agreed to do so and that same day God moved! I went online to Google maps, and was looking through all the towns around my spouse place of work, my eyes went to one south of his work place. I felt a prompting within me and decided to check for rental listings in that area. When I checked, there was a new listing that same day, and I got in touch with the owner. We ended up talking on the phone for more than 30 minutes and it felt like we had known each other forever. I knew then, this is God's way in action.

This house was so much different from what we were looking for but still it was in an  excellent school district, good neighborhood and town, 12 minutes commute to work without any traffic. It was awesome! God went ahead to do more than we had thought of or asked, the rent was lower than our bench mark figure, the owner said we can pay the security deposit over 10 months instead of paying it in full immediately. This was a relief to us and made things more comfortable financially. We made the move at the right time, was welcomed by our landlord with hot pizza and drinks. The staff and students of the schools were very welcoming and the kids love their new  school much more than their previous one.