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God Is My
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"Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." |
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In The Beginning
Six Hundred Dollars
The Next Step
Blowing In The Wind
Thinking South
Betty Bucket
In The South Island
Selling Our House
God Provides
A Home of Our Own
What Of Our Vision?
Conclusion
How To Know God
In the Beginning
During our first few years of marriage, Rob and I were probably like nearly every other young Christian couple - we both worked at first, until our first baby was due to be born, shortly after our second anniversary. We went to church, spent time with other young couples, and tried to make ends meet. Unfortunately, we weren't too successful at this last part!
By the time our second child was 9 months old, and we had been married nearly 5 years, we were in serious financial difficulties. The stress of this, along with other things, brought everything to a head, and our marriage endured it’s greatest test.
On our own, we probably wouldn’t have made it. But God restored our marriage, making it stronger than ever.
After we recommitted ourselves to each other, and to God, we began to long for a life that had more meaning. We felt that we were stuck in the ultimate rat race - just going around in circles in the daily business of living, but not really achieving anything of worth. We asked ourselves “If we died tomorrow, what would our lives have counted for? What have we achieved for God?” The answer - nothing! Since we had been married, we had been so busy just surviving that we had lost our first love for God. Sure, we still went to church regularly, still believed. But God had lost first place in our lives. Now, we wanted that to be different.
We cried out to God “Oh God, we want to do something for You! Anything! Show us what to do! If this is where you want us to live, and how you want us to live, then please help us shine for you right where we are. But if you have a different plan, please show us what it is.”
We prayed like this for several weeks, and slowly the Lord gave us a picture of:
Living somewhere fairly remote,
Being fairly self-sufficient,
And ministering to people he would bring across our paths.
That sounded wonderful! BUT, it sounded like a retirement dream! After all, here we were, $120,000 in debt, with a house that we had paid $102,000 for in 1989, but due to market decline now was worth only $70,000 - not even enough to pay off the $85,000 in mortgages we had on it. So how could we live somewhere remote? We certainly couldn’t buy a farm or anything! So, back to God “Oh Lord, that sounds nice, but what do we do for you NOW?”
God’s response was “I want you to get out of debt.” Well, sure, that made sense! So I, being the financial one in the family, grabbed pen, paper and calculator, and worked out that if God would only help us somehow meet the minimum payments on everything (which we weren’t doing at that point), then we would pay off all our smaller debts in 5 years, and then we could really concentrate on the two mortgages. “What do you say God?” Answer: “No. I want you debt free in 2 years.”
Hmm. Ok, well, if God is for us, we can do anything, right? Rob, who was already working a full-time job plus a part-time one, figured maybe he could get a third job. I was making some money selling make-up. Maybe I could make more. But as we prayed about it, God spoke again - “Rob is to leave work.” Huh? Leave work?!?! But that doesn’t make any sense - two kids, two mortgages, huge debt and falling further behind - and Rob LEAVES WORK??!!
Well, God was very patient with us. The more we prayed about this, the more God confirmed it to us, mostly through Scripture. Again and again, as we prayed, we would be given verses that said things like “Trust Me, I will provide.” We asked for confirmations over and over, and each time God confirmed his word to us “Rob, leave work.”
About this time, I was offered (verbally) a job with a company I had been doing some part time bookkeeping for. The position would have paid about $60,000 per year. Now, our belief was that Dad should work, and Mum should be home with the kids, but we figured, maybe, just maybe, Rob could be home with the children for a while, while I worked just until we got out of this hole. So we prayed, asking God to have this job offer be confirmed to me in writing before Rob handed his notice in at work. The scripture that we read that day was Psalm 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” As soon as I read this, a clear picture sprang into my mind of someone walking along a narrow path through a dark forest, carrying an old-fashioned lantern in their hand. As they walked, the lamp lit up a circle of ground immediately around them, but they could not focus it ahead as like a torch - but as they moved forward, the light moved with them, illuminating the next part of the path. And I felt God speak into my heart “I have shown you the next step - take it. Only when you do, will the step after that become clear.”
Shortly after this, I prayed again “Oh Lord, before we do it, are you REALLY sure this is the right thing - that Rob should leave work. Please confirm it just one more time.” That day’s Scripture? Matt 14:31 “O ye of little faith, why do you still doubt me?”
Ok, so time to put our money where our mouth was, so to speak. Either God was speaking to us, or not. And if he was, we had a choice - to obey or not to obey. Rob handed in his notice at work.
One week after Rob handed in his notice, the company that had offered me the job went bankrupt. Rob’s company had already replaced him - he was training his replacement, and finished with them two weeks later.
Now what? We could only cling to those often repeated words
“Trust ME! I will provide!”
And so began our life of adventure! We have many stories to tell of God’s faithful leading, miraculous provision and ever present help in times of trouble. Oh, and by the way, 2 years after God called us to this path, we were completely debt free, but that’s a whole other story.
Someone asked me recently the secret of an extraordinary life. I believe it is:
First, obey Romans 12:1 and present yourself to God as a living sacrifice. That means to give your WHOLE self to God - your body, your heart & mind, your dreams & hopes, all that you possess.
Then, obey Proverbs 3:5&6
“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all of your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.”
Story continued in Part 2: Six Hundred Dollars
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Welcome!I hope our
testimony will be an encouragement to you! Don't forget to check out my
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Cynthia
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CynthiaHancox/Foxton, New Zealand/ +646-363-7743
www.CynthiaHancox.com/Cynthia@CynthiaHancox.com