"For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."
-Isaiah 64:4
"O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth."
-Isaiah 25:1
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."
-Jeremiah 29:11
"God delights to increase the faith of
His children. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no
exercise for patience, to be willing to take them from God's hands as a
means. Trials, obstacles, difficulties and sometimes defeats, are the
very food of faith."
-George Muller
-George Muller
Thursday morning came around and we're mentioning what day it is to the Lord, then Friday "It's Friday Lord", then Saturday and then only a few hours left in Saturday...no one called interested in our buying our house. If I said we felt no discouragement or disappointment I'd be lying, because we did. Dad, however, stood strong and encouraged us to trust the Lord and His timing and to keep seeking Him and asking Him for the sale of the house. Oh how thankful I am for my dad! He is so the rock of our family and a gentle leader! His steadfastness, strength, trust and encouragement has been a blessing over and over again to us!
Although I received such wonderful advise Saturday night from my precious dad, Sunday found me feeling somewhat numb, exhausted and discouraged. Why, when we prayed so hard and so sought to glorify God in this, would God not give us what we asked? I found myself having difficulty clinging to the truths of God's Word.
Pastor Lederman preached from Romans 1:21 yesterday morning. I am so often amazed at the goodness of the Lord in bringing the encouragement and just what we need into our lives at just the right time! Mr. Lederman spoke a good bit about glorifying God and what that means. Here are some of the things I jotted down in my notes from his sermon:
-Self pity, complaining, questioning God doesn't give glory to God. Not staggering at God's promise does glorify Him.
- We should not wrestle against God's providence
-We glorify God when we speak truth, in spite of our circumstances.
- Glorifying God is living a life that draws attention to God. If you will honor and glorify God with your life, you will walk in power
-To refuse to glorify God is the apidamy of pride and arrogance. One who fails to give thanks is failing to give God glory.
As the day went on and these truths were on my mind and the Lord continued to direct my heart, I realized that my exhaustion came from me putting so much effort last week into praying and praying and praying. But the Lord showed me that "I" was trying to make it happen. Because I know that apart from God working, this house isn't going to sell. So I turned to the Lord in prayer, but I was fighting to get what I wanted. I thought I knew best what would glorify God, what was His will is for our family, etc. Oh the foolishness in thinking that I had God's will figured out in this regard!
We rarely understand exactly how the Lord is working at the present. God never said we needed to...but He did say that we need to trust Him. I'm so thankful that the Lord convicted me of my striving, because that's not what He wants either. Then it would be a work that I have done because I prayed so hard, not because I simply placed my trust in Jesus and had peace in His working and He did the all the working. The Lord had to bring me to the end of my strength, so that I can be still before Him and truly trust in Him to work according to His will. Only He knows what His will is. His timing is perfect. And we are at peace to trust Him for His timing. Yes, we are continuing to diligently pray and seek Him. But for me, I feel so at rest because I now realize that I can't make it happen by praying any harder. My job is to present our requests before the Lord, trust in Him, and be at peace as we wait on Him and His timing.
Thank you so much to those of you that were praying with us last week, it means so much to our family! What a blessing to know that others are praying! If the Lord lays it on your hearts, please continue to pray with us for the Lord to give guidance and for the sale of our home. We will continue to place our desires before Him, to commit our way to Him and to trust in Him and wait for Him to work. He is so faithful and so worthy of all of our trust and confidence! May His name be glorified and exalted as HE shows us how awesome He is! :-)
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
-Isaiah 40:28-31
~Posted By Breanna
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