The Faithfulness of God

***I began writing this post last Sunday evening. At first, it took some time to marinate in my mind before I could finish it. I then realized that I would have to break it into three posts to, hopefully, prevent you from falling asleep while reading it. Our God is faithful beyond our wildest imaginations. For that, I am thankful.

The Holy Spirit has been impressing me with the need to find a church home. My flesh has been putting up quite a struggle. I mean really, one of the most awkward moments in life occurs when you walk into a church for the first time. The first thing you encounter is deciding where to park, followed closely by which door do I enter to find the sanctuary? (I have never noticed how many buildings/doors churches have until I visit one for the first time.) Once you find the sanctuary, you wonder where to sit (you don't want to accidentally sit in a pew reserved for a founding family or anything). Then there is that uncomfortable moment when you are asked to turn around and greet someone near you. (Why is it that it seems like everyone turns their back on you except the person you just turned your back to?) It is a bumbling and awkward time indeed.

It was with great effort that I made my way to visit a new church this morning. This was only my second attempt since the move last August. I don't know why it was so hard this time. We were in the habit of attending weekly.

Anyway, back to this post, I enjoyed the praise service (I attended the contemporary service). It was a little more reserved than our church home, but not as 'uptight' as some others I have attended. (Please don't get too bent out of shape by that comment. I am just stating my preference.) The Pastor gave an inspirational message from Lamentations 3. (Ya'll, I was looking for it up by Exodus! Is that sad or what?) He spoke about the faithfulness of God. He also challenged us to spend some time contemplating when God has revealed Himself faithful to us and to share that testimony with 'someone in someway this week'.

Hence, this post.


It would be impossible for me to give an account of even a quarter of the instances in which God has shown His faithfulness to me and my family.

I could tell of the times that He has filled out stomachs in spite of an empty pantry...Or when He has blessed us materially at just the time we needed something...Or the seasons when He has brought emotional healing to wounds that should have done me in. And the greatest show of faithfulness, when He has forgiven my sins (1 John 1:9) and even helped me though the consequences that have arisen from that sin.


So, where do I start?


In light of this week's quote in my sidebar, I will not rely upon 'the glory and victories of the past' but will testify of His faithfulness to us today.


The story begins (in our minds, at least) a little over a year ago. Now mind you, we had no idea just how amazing this story would become when it started. It seemed like just another one of those decisions that you make in life.

In January 2007, Jim and I began tossing around the idea of remodeling our home of 11 1/2 years. As our research began, we quickly got cold feet. This was not going to be cheap!

This realization brought us to the conversation of whether to invest the money in the home or whether we should look at buying a new home instead.

By the end of March, we had made the decision to look at purchasing another home. By the middle of May, we had viewed thousands of homes online, drove by hundreds more and had our realtor schedule walk through's of 35-45 houses. During this process we had put in an offer on a foreclosure (which we lost) and had several suddenly come off the market as soon as we showed interest. Homes that had been on the market for a year suddenly had contracts when our realtor called.


After all those homes, we were tired and they were all beginning to look the same. We had one more appointment to see a house that we had been unable to get into the first time we went to view it. We decided that it just was not the right time and we would quit after this last appointment.


In the meantime, I had found a piece of property online that had a 2 bedroom trailer on it and I talked Jim into driving by to see it one weekend. He wasn't especially excited about it when he saw it from the road, but he agreed to call the realtor and come back out to see it when we had our next appointment.

The last home wasn't what we wanted, so we headed out to the piece of property. We unloaded from the car and the realtor and I made our way to the trailer while Jim went to walk the 5 acres. It was love at first sight for him. The place reminded both of us of 'home' back in Ashley County. There were trees, squirrels, rabbits and even deer! We had to make an offer!

Since the place was part of an estate, the process was long and frustrating. More than once we nearly walked away from the table. But finally, on July 12 we left the closing with dreams of a big stone and cedar house in the country! We drove back into Houston with the hopes of starting on the house in the next two - three months and of moving in before the 2008-2009 school year.

All of those homes, all of that time spent driving (literally) from the extreme southwest to the extreme northwest Houston area, all the disappointments...yet, when all was said and done, we knew that God had been faithful to answer our prayers while also graciously giving us our hearts desire of a place in the country.