Good Things Come to Those Who Wait on God

When God prompted us to sell our house and move to a smaller house, I fully anticipated that we would know where we were moving to BEFORE we sold our house. I expected it. I mean, how could we sell our beloved home of almost 7 years without having a place to move to? In my mind, it just wouldn’t happen unless we had a for sure home to move into.

But that’s not how God works. He doesn’t always go by our plan…or our expectations. Sometimes He prompts us to stick our foot outside the boat and take a leap of faith. Sometimes His plan is entirely different than our plan.

And that’s exactly what happened! Our beloved home sold in April…..might I add, BEFORE we had a permanent house lined up. Can I tell you how scary that was? The unknown was terrifying. Where would we live? Would we find a house we liked as much? Were we doing the right thing stepping into the unknown? My fears had come true.

As we embarked on the journey of selling our house and packing up our stuff, I tried to keep a positive attitude as I knew deep down inside that God was behind all this. But can I tell you how difficult it was to pack up everything we owned and pack it into a storage unit? When would we get our stuff back? When would we have a permanent house?

We were walking down a road without being able to see the end. We were blindly following God’s voice and taking huge leaps of faith.

Now, before all this happened, I considered myself to have a lot of faith in God. I knew I trusted Him with everything. But this situation forced me to put all of that to the test. I had to trust God more than I had in a long time. I had to get out of the safety net and take many, many steps of faith.

After our storage unit was filled, we packed our few leftover belongings and shuttled them over to the cabin where we would spend the next phase of our journey. (Now that….that experience is meant for a blog of it’s own…..oh my!) Can I tell you how scared I was as I spent our last night in our house….our warm, inviting house…the house that held so many memories???? I was terrified! What would our future hold? And even though I knew God orchestrated everything, I still held onto that sliver of fear as I wondered if we did the right thing.

The next day we cleaned out every nook and cranny of our home and packed up a very worried dog and headed out to the cabin. That fear was still there….threatening to take over the faith that I had mustered up to get through this experience.

Did you know that having faith in God isn’t always easy? Sometimes we have to force ourselves to hang on to our Jesus and we fight the thoughts of fear that threaten to overwhelm us. I can’t tell you I did a wonderful job having faith through this journey. I had days where I broke down in sobs wanting more than anything to have a place of our own again. I had days where I didn’t think I would make it through. The unknown was so very hard. The waiting was difficult. I prayed and prayed that God would come through.

Even through my days of struggling, God was there. He gave me the strength to overcome the challenges we were faced with in our cabin experience. Even though I felt like I hit rock bottom at times, I know I came out of that experience a stronger person in God. I was forced to spend a summer practicing faith. I didn’t just say I had faith in God…..I had to walk it every single day.

While we expected our “temporary” house to be just a few weeks stay, it turned out to be over 3 months. Three months of finding a whole new level of trust in my God. Three months of leaning on God every single day.

I know “home” is where you make it. Home can be where your family is and it can even be a smelly old cabin. And I know some of you think it’s crazy I struggled so much just being in a temporary house. But you know, I struggled feeling like I was at “home” those three months. I didn’t feel like myself. I felt like part of me was missing. My place of comfort was gone. My place of rest was gone. I was in limbo. And that made it really hard to wait.

But God. But God was there. But my God is faithful. But my God rescued me!

My God opened some doors that were previously shut. My God made a way down a path that wasn’t suppose to happen. My God did what I consider a miracle to give me a home that I love even more than our beloved house of 7 years. My God knew if I just waited, He would come through on His promise. He knew that each and every day spent in the cabin would make me just that much MORE thankful for our new home.

I look back now and know that every step of the way was orchestrated by my God. Why did I ever fear? Why did my faith waver? Why did I ever doubt in His faithfulness?
No, it certainly didn’t happen in my timing. But what would I have learned if I was simply handed the thing I desired? I would have never gotten out of the boat. I wouldn’t have had a summer of an extreme faith journey. I wouldn’t have seen the hand of God work out every detail in perfect timing.

Sometimes God works in ways we don’t understand. Sometimes hard things happen. Sometimes things look like they just might fall apart on us. But those moments are the times when we learn the most about God….and about just how strong our faith is in Him. I realized this summer that my faith wasn’t at the level it needed to be. Maybe that’s why we waited so long for our house….maybe God was teaching me to lean on Him even more!

When God is leading you through the unknown...a waiting time, remember that God is near and He hasn’t forsaken you. It’s time to put on those running shoes and take a step out of the boat. Run to God…run fast towards His promises!!!