When The Rubber Meets The Road

I'm learning tonight that sometimes when God surrounds you with sweet assurances through His word He decides to give you a test to see whether or not you REALLY believe it.  And our family is entering a test.  I covet your prayers to help us pass His test!

We have been renting a four bedroom/ 3 bath house since we moved to Florida almost three years ago at an unbelievably great rent price thanks to a gracious and kind lady who attends our church.  She has become a very important part of our family, someone we love and not just someone we rent from.  We have GREAT neighbors.  My daughter has one of her best friends living two houses down from her.  Just tonight her dad was able to holler from their front yard to Mike when we drove up from church telling him one of our headlights on our car was out.  We have a lady who lives right next door to us who has adopted our kids as her own and who they affectionately call "Granny McGreevy".

Why am I telling you all this?  So you will know just a few of the reasons why we are so comfortable here.  And tonight we get ready to go to bed not feeling so comfortable.  We are a little shaken.  At least I am.

Due to unforseen circumstances beyond our landlord's control, we are having to move out of this house and find somewhere else to live immediately.  We have a real estate agent in our church who will be taking us around tomorrow to look at some other homes; and so, we begin the big test of whether or not we will trust God and believe that He is The Sovereign Lord of our family Who has a plan way better than ANYTHING we can even begin to come up with.

How timely that God would have laid the sermon on Mike's heart that he preached this very morning way back in January!  He preached out of Psalm 2:

"Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand

and the rulers gather together against the Lord

and against his Anointed One.

Let us break their chains, they say,

and throw off their fetters.

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;

the Lord scoffs at them.  

Then he rebukes them in his anger

and terrifies them in his wrath,

saying, I have installed my King on Zion,

my holy hill.

I will proclaim the decree of the Lord:

He said to me, You are my Son;

today I have become your Father.

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,

the ends of the earth your possession.

You will rule them with an iron scepter;

you will dash them to pieces like pottery.

Therefore, you kings, be wise;

be warned, you rulers of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear

and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry

and you be destroyed in your way,

for his wrath can flare up in a moment.

Blessed are all who take refuge in Him."

Now Mike took the sermon in the direction of admonishing the unconverted person to stop living in rebellion to God, but He said some things in that context that is ringing loud in my ear tonight.

For instance, one of His points was that Jesus, The King is in control and is ruling and reigning right now.  He mentioned the old adage you may have heard, "If you want to make God laugh, just tell Him your plans."  

He primarily spoke about the unconverted sinner submitting to God's rule and reign in his life.  But tonight, I hear that being spoken over me.  As a believer, I must submit to God's rule and reign; to His plan now for my family.

I hate moving.  I hate packing.  It brings me great stress.  We've served in several churches and each move has been very hard and although this move isn't taking us from our church, it is taking us from a living situation in which we've grown comfortable.  I told Mike this evening that I just wished we could have a "normal" life to which his response was, "I don't think you really mean that."

And I don't.

Being in the ministry with a young family isn't the easiest thing in the world.  We don't own a home.  Money is tight, because it's important for us for me to be at home to raise our little ones.  So that means renting a home, which means you don't have that constancy of a living arrangement like some people who own their homes do.  

Mike relayed a situation he encountered years ago in which he was  faced with answering this question in relation to his commitment to God and the ministry he had been given; the "calling" on his life:

"If it never gets any better than this, will you submit to God and serving Him?"

His answer was a resounding YES.

My answer tonight:  YES!

Choosing to Kiss the Son,
Jennifer