short story long

We got a contract on our house and have a contract on a house in BR. We are really excited. God did a miracle in that so many things had to fall into place for all this to work. Plus he did a work in my heart through His word. I was reading to the kids one night out of their Big Picture Bible while Chip was out of town. In the story of Abraham it said he went outside, looked up at the stars and "believed God". That stood out to me in that he did not believe in God but that he believed God. He trusted in who God was and what he said. I prayed a lot after that and really decided to trust God again with the sale of our house. I trusted him a lot with it back in Sept. By the end of Dec my trust was lacking. Then the next day I was reading in my own time in Romans 4 where guess who was mentioned? Abraham. And it said that "in hope against hope he believed." Again I was convicted and challenged to have hope that it would in fact sell at the right time.

Either that day or the next Chip calls from Atlanta and says that someone is coming to look for the second time at Jen's townhome. Jen is one of our students. She approached us about buying our house after we announced that we were leaving. But, she had to sell her condo first. Well, in a market that is poor to say the least, we thought there was no way she would be able to sell it before we needed to move. But, she put it on the market only hoping to buy OUR HOUSE! So, she got a contract on hers and the next day faxed us a contract that we accepted. We immediately went to look at houses. Actually we had been looking for a while and were really excited about one. It was a little out of our price range but we were hoping to be able to get it for a little less than the asking price. We actually made an offer on it that was not accepted. Everything in my flesh wanted that house. But, I did not have a peace about how the monthly note would affect us. So, again I was reading in Romans. Chapter 8 this time. Verse 6 says, "for the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace". Not to over-spiritualize or take a verse out of context, but God really gave me a peace about buying a cheaper house that needed more updating, knowing that I would be much more financially peaceful each month. So, we made an offer that was accepted and we should close in about 4 weeks.