On Sunday night my family and I returned home from funeralizing a loved one to find our home broken into. We were so upset to find that for the second time in two months the security of our home had been breached. The windows at the back of our home were kicked out leaving gaping holes and many of our material blessings had been stolen or broken and strewn throughout the home. After the police left, our family had to pack up and leave our home to stay with some friends from church in order that we could stay safe and warm. For two nights we were guests in the home of these blessed friends! (Thanks Tara and Kevin!)The first day we returned to clean up the mess and we also had to sit down and make some tough decisions. We decided that the best thing to do would be to move into an apartment. With the help of another of God’s saints (Thanks Veronica T!), we found some apartments that were nice, had SPECIALS going on, and seemed rather reasonable.
On today, we visited those apartments and found that many offered exactly what my family needed in terms of space and amenities. We also found that it would cost a lot less to rent an apartment than to continue to live in a home rental. Because apartments usually pay for water, trash pick-up, and gas, three of our usual bills are eliminated leaving us a surplus of approximately $400 or more a month. PRAISE GOD!!!
As we rode home and discussed our options, we realized that in His infinite glory and majesty, what they meant for harm, God has made a blessing. (Genesis 50:20) Even through our trials and hardships, He has brought us to a needed place. We are happy that our eyes were opened to the need to get back to basics.
I am often in awe of His magnificent power. How many of the trials we face are for our good, yet we fight Him tooth and nail the entire way? Even though we know that God is trying to perfect something in us, we loathe the pain that we must endure to get to the prize set before us!
And so, through this trial, I am resolved to Praise God for the squeezing!!!
1 Peter 1:6-7
New International Version (NIV)
6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
