Learning to Walk by Faith

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1).

“Your possessions are never so safe as when you are willing to resign them, and you are never so rich as when you put all you have into the hand of God…’Oh!’ but they will say ‘it is ridiculous-a man trusting in God.’ Yes, but you do not think it ridiculous to trust in yourselves” (Charles Spurgeon).

“When Jesus sent out His twelve disciples (Luke 9:3), He told them to ‘take nothing for the journey- no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic’. Why do you suppose He said this? Why not let them run home and grab a few supplies? Why not allow them to bring some money along just in case?
Jesus was forcing His disciples to trust Him. God would have to come through for them because they had nothing else to fall back on.
This place of trust isn’t a comfortable place to be; in fact, it flies in the face of everything we’ve been taught about proper planning. We like finding refuge in what we already have rather than in what we hope God will provide. But when Christ says to count the cost of following Him, it means we must surrender everything. It means being willing to go without an extra tunic or a place to sleep at night, and sometimes without knowing where we are going.
God wants us to trust Him with abandon. He wants to show us how He works and cares for us. He wants to be our refuge” (Francis Chan- Crazy Love).

To be honest, walking by faith is not something I have, historically, been very good at. When the Lord led us to adopt first one child, then a second, and a third- all at once- trusting that He would provide did not come easily for me. I would give God a certain deadline by which I wanted to have a particular expense paid for and as the time approached I began to panic…every time. Rather than wait and ask God to provide for what He had called us to do, I would pull out my oh-so-trusty Master Card, get a cash advance, and pay the bill. Ultimately, this not only caused us a lot of financial difficulty, but even worse, demonstrated that I did not trust God.

Nearly two years ago Michael and I decided to stop using credit cards and within the last year we purposed to avoid as much debt as possible.

When we felt the Lord calling us to start All Things New and we began to look at land, we determined after a lot of prayer and budgeting, that we could afford to make a monthly payment that was equivalent to a car payment. At the time, we only had one vehicle. Whitey, as we called our van, was frankly, a piece of junk. We had been driving her for just over a year and in that time we had to replace the radiator, the transmission, the tires, the brakes, and something that held the steering wheel in place. Whitey had a cracked windshield, another window held in by duct tape, and neither the heater nor the air conditioner worked. Shortly after we purchased her, the handle to the large sliding door broke off in my hand…apparently the previous owner had glued it on and neglected to mention it. The passenger door didn’t have an outside lock, so if we locked the doors, someone had to enter through the driver’s side door, manually unlock the passenger door and then open the sliding door from the inside. Whitey was the size of a twelve passenger van, but only had seats (and seatbelts) for eight. In any case, rather than purchase a new(er) vehicle, or a second vehicle we trusted that God would keep Whitey going for at least three more years. (For the record, while we knew this was what God was leading us to do, I must confess this was not always easy. For example, if I needed the vehicle during the day, I had to get up at 5:30 and take Michael to work. If you know me, you know I am not a morning person and so I was never happy when this had to occur.)

We bought the land.

A few weeks later we found out I was pregnant.

Now even if Whitey held out, we were short one seat and seatbelt.

Then Michael got laid-off.

We had nothing to fall back on- no savings, no credit cards, nothing.

A lot of people said “Well, you can always let the land go. At least then you can keep your house.” While this was true, we just didn’t believe that was the plan God had. So with less than $2000 a month coming in to provide for our family and pay all of our bills, we continued to pray that God would make ends meet.

He did.

Our church family gave us grocery gift cards and gas cards and bought us food and toilet paper (which we REALLY needed). Michael would get an odd job here or there that supplied just what we needed to pay whatever bill was looming.

…And when our van broke down…

Our friends, the Rories, loaned us their mini-van and our friends the Penn’s asked their church family to loan us the church van.

Last week, Corey Penn came by to visit. The church he pastors, Peace Church, voted to give, yes GIVE, our family the 15 passenger church van. Corey said it wasn’t about him or what the church had done. It was all the Lord.

We know he is right. We are so humbled and blessed that God moved in the hearts of His people to give freely and without reservation in order to provide for our need.

As if that wasn’t enough, someone at their church gave money to pay for the tax, title and license of the van.

I am learning to walk by faith…not by what I see with my own eyes and very limited perspective. I hope and pray that when the next crisis comes, as it inevitably will, that this experience will remind me of God's faithfulness.

I write this for a few reasons. First, God totally, amazingly, continuously provides for our needs, and He should get the glory for it. It is He who made us and sustains us. Second, I want you to be encouraged. I am not implying that God is like a magic genie who gives us whatever we want, but He does care for us, and when we follow Him into unknown, sometimes frightening places, that He calls us to go, He WILL provide for our every need. It does, oftentimes, mean going without things we want, but in the end, it is so worth it to see Him demonstrate His power in incredible ways.
If today you are waiting for God to come through for you; don’t lose heart. “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phillipians 4:19).

May we take God at His Word today, and trust Him alone as we learn to walk by faith.