Update on Last Week's Prayer Request

"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

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

Taking a leap of faith in praying specifically for...

this.....

But not only for the sale of our home, but God has laid on our hearts to specifically ask Him to bring a buyer for our house this week.  We realize that now is not when the market is moving at it's best and also realize that we haven't had any interest shown in our house for weeks...but we feel that the Lord has shown us where He wants us to move to and that He wants us to specifically ask Him for a buyer for this house this week.  So....knowing that all things are possible with God, we are asking in faith for Him to bring a buyer this week. 

God has been growing our family and testing our faith for the last several weeks specifically.  He has already shown Himself so faithful to us as we have asked Him for specific things and He has answered.  What a faithful and merciful God we serve!  This particular request is a big one, one that will change our lives, and quite frankly, one that seems a little on the impossible side.  I was finding myself looking at the waves last night and this morning, but as I was in the Word and reading and listening to the things that I posted on our blog earlier today, God so showed me that I was not trusting Him and that I was being fearful.  He so lifted my fear and encouraged my heart as I just cried out to Him and laid our requests before Him, confessing and asking forgiveness for my lack of faith and unbelief and asking Him to show Himself faithful and to glorify His name.  That is one of the things that we have been asking God for, that He would use our family as a billboard on which He proclaims His glory and shows how mighty He is!

And that, my friend, is the reason for this post.  Once I had finished my devotion time and was so strengthened and encouraged, I got in the shower and all of the sudden it was like the Lord just laid on my heart that He wanted me to post this on our blog.  My immediate thought...oh me of little faith...was fear.  I'm like, you know, it's one thing to ask God for the impossible and believe that He can do it, but it's a whole different thing to go and tell everybody else about it!  What if God doesn't bring a buyer?  Then how would that bring glory to God?  Of course, the Lord showed me how wrong my thinking was and reminded me of the things that He had just reminded me of.  So I prayed about it and talked to Mom about it and she said, basically, "Go for it."

So, my prayer in sharing this personal request in our home, is that God would show Himself mighty and that each one in our home and each one of you would be encouraged to believe God more and take Him fully at His Word, not being afraid to ask the impossible.  He said, as He showed me this morning, that "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it."  Do we believe this?  Are we willing to be as the persistent widow in Luke 18 and earnestly and persistently present our requests before God, believing that He is faithful and He will answer according to His will?

If God lays it on your heart, pray with us...and may we all be encouraged to seek the face of God earnestly at all times and believe Him and what He has promised to be true for the specific needs in each one of our lives. Keep an eye on our blog...because we're expecting God to work in amazing ways and we're excited to watch Him show just how awesome and powerful He is! 

~Posted By Breanna

Never Give Up Praying...Pray until He Blesses

“It is very apparent from the Word of God that he often tries the faith and patience of his people, when they are crying to him for some great and important mercy, by withholding the mercy sought for a season; and not only so, but at first he may cause an increase of dark appearances.  And yet he, without fail, at last prospers those who continue urgently in prayer with all perseverance and ‘will not let him go except he blesses.’”

Jonathan Edwards, “A Call to United Extraordinary Prayer,” in Works (Edinburgh, 1979), II:312.