The Lord’s been dealing with me a lot lately on where my focus is, what my thoughts are centered on, and how that impacts my actions. Sometimes we can take something that is from God but we can focus on one aspect of it; instead of keeping our focus on God and what He is wanting to do, and we can miss what He’s doing by focusing on the wrong thing.
Recently the Lord gave me a word, and I had no doubt it was from Him, but I took what I interpreted and began to run with it. The verses God gave me were in Isaiah 54: 1-3
1 “Sing, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
burst into song, shout for joy,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband,”
says the Lord.
2 “Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide,
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations
and settle in their desolate cities.”
Many of you know that I am a single foster mom. So these verses spoke directly to me. I’d been praying about expanding my home so that I would have another bedroom available for foster children if I needed to separate them into separate bedrooms. I felt like this directly addressed that prayer. In my mind, it meant that I was to build on to my house. I already have an addition on the right side of the back of my house, and I felt the Lord was telling me to add on the left. So I began to take action. I reached out to people I respect and got recommendations and started getting quotes for this work.
Now the Lord also gave me some common sense and a business mind so I’m not going to just move forward without weighting the cost of this investment vs the value. As the quotes for this addition began to come in I began to doubt that I had heard correctly from the Lord. I mean, I knew it was going to be more expensive than if we did it ourselves but I just had no idea the cost would be so great. I didn’t feel like it would be wise to invest so much into my house for one room ($54K – $85K). So for a few days I felt defeated, like I had really somehow missed what God was saying. But the Lord is gracious, and He doesn’t just walk away shaking his head at us when we run off ahead of Him. He’s way more patient with me than I am with my kids, and I need to work on that, but that’s a whole separate blog.
As I continued to pray about this I didn’t feel like the Lord was saying give up, you’ve missed the mark, I felt like I was just focusing on the wrong thing. I still believed He was telling me that I was to have this extra room. I began researching more and looking into other options to accomplish my purpose. I needed a place for extra storage for all my foster gear and also to have an office. My spare room is currently serving that purpose, but to use it as a bedroom, I have to move those things elsewhere. So I began looking at sheds. you know there’s some really cool looking sheds out there and we’ve all heard the commercial about the she-shed. Did you know that you can get a shed just as large as the room I intended to build for 10% or less of the costs I was quoted to add on? Did you know that the Lord is faithful and when we are looking for Him and His will he will reveal it to us?
Last Friday afternoon, after my online research, I took my parents with me to go look at some sheds in the area. We looked at several lots but there was this one shed that just stood out. We asked about it and the salesman immediately dropped the price. He said someone else had said they were going to take it but it had been more than two weeks since He’d heard from him. I believe God had it on hold for me. This Thursday, they’ll deliver this little shed that has storage space up top and room at the bottom for me to setup an office and I’m so excited to work on it and with the help of my parents to fix up the inside. Now listen to how God works, because I waited, I didn’t keep running ahead, I just know he worked this all out. I paid about $3300 for this little shed. I know the price is not your business but I won’t you to see how God works. He’s alway working on our behalf!!
Sometimes we think we have to have it all figured out. We think that when we get a glimpse of what God wants to do that we have permission to take off running with it. But in reality we need to be more like Jehoshaphat. In 2 Chronicles 20:12 the second part of the verse says “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” We need to make sure that even when He gives us a nugget or a next step that we don’t take our eyes off Him and start sprinting towards what we think we know. We have to keep our focus on him so that when things aren’t going like we thought they would, we can look up and see that He’s still there, ready to guide us.
Lord, today I pray for whomever is reading this, that you would show them that you are there, ready to lead and guide them. Show them that they can’t get so far ahead that you can’t hear them, or so far behind that you don’t see them. You are there to lead us and guide us through every decision and every difficulty. When they are in a place of uncertainty, help them to remember this prayer. “Lord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” Thank you that you hear us, you see us, you love us, and you have a wonderful plan for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
In Pursuit of Christ 