August 09, 2009

Jehovah Jireh – our provider

God’s care will carry you so you can carry others.
                 —Robert Harold Schuller

God

has provided! As we knew he would. Although this has been a harrowing experience filled with trepidation as home after home fell through and we saw the move-out deadline fast approaching, all along the way we rested in God’s loving care and providence.

The front of our new house

That does not mean that we had it all together for that entire time. There were moments when our confidence faltered—especially mine. There were moments when we questioned what God was doing. But the whole time we knew that God had a plan and was moving things into place at exactly the right moment for all involved—including our current (now previous) landlord, the new family that is slated to move into the church’s house that we have lived in up until now, our new neighbors, our new landlord, us, etc.

One of the rooms

Last night at about 7:30pm we received a phone call from our real estate agent informing us that one of the two houses that we had applied for the prior day had been offered to us for rent. This closes a four-month process of diligent searching for a new home—a process that has seen more walls and dead-ends than I could ever have imagined. But each of these was an answer to prayer because right at the start of this we asked God to make his will clear by closing doors he did not want us to walk through and opening the one he had planned for us.

And so, God has now opened the door to our new home, a new community, new neighbors, new adventures, new blessings, and new opportunities to serve him and others. Soli Deo gloria!

The view from the back porch

The home is a 1940s farmhouse on about one acre of land in a quiet neighborhood in downtown Front Royal, Virginia. It has historic wood floors (that have just been refinished). The backyard is huge with well cared-for grass and a handful of large trees. A deep, full-width front porch and a full-width screened-in back porch looking at the mountains.

Ephesians 3:20–21

Now to him who is able to do far more abundant than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

The home has three bedrooms, two and a half baths—with a Jacuzzi tub in the master bath. There is a large library on the first floor, a large dining room, and a large living room and an unfinished basement downstairs that opens out the back to the backyard, under the back porch. God has provided, as Paul proclaimed, “far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20), and we really love it!

I want to thank all of you who have been praying with us throughout this process. And please join with us in praise to our great and awesome God, who has worked his will in exactly his timing—as he always does.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

7 comments:

  1. I am so happy for you all, and what beautiful surroundings, inside and outside! Thanks for posting the pictures. Rejoicing with you.

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  2. Praise the Lord. It is another evidence of God's providential care as He promises in Matthew 6:24-32. Note, Rich and Kim and all who read this blog, that God promises to care for us as He feeds His birds and clothes His flowers. What He asks of us is to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness". May God help us to be faithful in that.

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  3. Wonderful answer to prayer!!

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  4. Richard, I am so happy you have a new home home for you and your family to move into to. I hope you find a wonderful, welcoming community there. You will have to get a new church, I guess? My Va. geography is appalling, but I think Lynchburg and Front Royal are too far. Perhaps your DC commute will be better. Blessings to you from Peggy in Fredericskburg.

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  5. This is wonderful news and it looks absolutely lovely! May the Lord continue to bless you and yours.

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  6. Thank you all for your prayers and for rejoicing with us in what the Lord has provided.

    Maybe once we get settled into the new home I can get back to some normality here on my blog. Thank you to you all for sticking with me while my brain has been otherwise focused.

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