Happy are those whose hope is in the Lord their God.
For those of you who have been reading my blog for a little while, you may know that I did not always rely totally on the Lord. Even though my Mum fed me regular ‘Jesus’ stories,’ it was not till later in life that I recognised Jesus for the Saviour He is.
An enormous amount of anxiety falls away when we stop relying on people and realise that everything is in God’s very capable hands. All we need to do is remember at all times who is in charge, get out of the way and excercise those knees.
Help please!
it was Gods Word and my hope and trust in Him which helped my children and I move house and find a place one hundred times nicer than the one we were in, as well as more than one hundred bucks a week cheaper. This was in the year 2008 when we lived in Noosa and our rent was to go up from $280/week to $450 or something. To be honest I cannot quite remember what the rent exactly was, or was going to be raised to, but it was by that much that I knew we had to move elsewhere.
In the end we told our friends that it was time for a sea change. But the reallity was that Noosa had become a popular place and house prices as well as rentals were going through the roof. After nearly a decade in that wonderful place we just weren’t able to find a suitable rental. I was in no postion to go out and find something, having been confined to bed for some years due to various health issues. My daughters did a few trips here and there to find a place but overall it was pretty miserable and seemingly hopeless. In that area rents were just around those prices and for us had become unaffordable. To move to a different area seemed impossible because I had just, amongst other things, experienced a major pancreatic attack, wasn’t very mobile and any kind of travel was potentially life threatening to me.
What to do?
My Rule of FIVE
On our knees, that’s what we did. We lived in a very pleasant three bedroom place near the centre of town, ten minutes away from the beach with a relatively small garden. I just wanted a place which we could afford and where pets were allowed. But I thought that if I was going to put in a request, humble as I tried to be, I might as well ask for what I wanted. So I decided to be bold. I have a rule of FIVE which in a nutshell goes like this; to determine if something is a ‘goer’ we apply five rules. For instance, with regards to work;
1. Can I significantly contribute to this company?
2. Happy with the wages?
3. Location of work?
4. Who are my colleagues, do we hold similar values?
5. What is the workload? Am I a natural match or will it be an effort?
If I get three out of five that is a good match and I take whatever is on offer, anything more is a bonus and anything less I can only take on if there is no other choice or I can somehow create improvement in the near future. When I get fussy I may go up to ten points and add in; possibilities for advancement, does the job description match my qualifications and so on, you get the drift.
My FIVE wishes
What my girls and I settled on with our wishes for a rental was that we put in a request on High as follows, 1. light and spacious, 2. pets, 3. affordable, 4. tiles not carpet, 5. near town.
The situation was absolutely hopeless, we asked all our friends in town to keep an eye out for us, rang every real estate agent, combed through local newspapers and internet sites which advertised rentals and with only two weeks to go, nothing! Asked my brother in the next town a couple of hours away; nothing!
In a final desperate attempt, I phoned in response to an advertisement in a town a few hours away and yep they were happy to show us their abode. We climbed in the car and as soon as I arrived in town the owner of the caravan park where we were staying phoned for an ambulance to take me to hospital because I was as sick as a dog and he was not going to have me die in his caravan park. Well, praise the Lord I didn’t give his caravan park a bad name and we eventually saw the rental which was advertised, liked it and signed a rental agreement.
My hope is in the LORD
What is so special about this story? We knew that we had to move six months in advance and couldn’t find anything no matter how we tried.
During the process of looking for suitable accomodation I found appropriate scripture verses in the bible and I wrote these verses on bits of paper to memorise. Remember how we’re told that trusting in the Lord will keep our mind in perfect peace? Well, this certainly worked for us.
We read these verses out and sang them and my girls and I, we meditated upon these verses, putting our trust in the Lord. This resulted in me signing a rental agreement for a place which had not three of our wishes come true, nor four or five. No, our new place has 100, ONE HUNDRED!!! features over and above our old place. Not only that but it ended up $100/week less rent than Noosa which was a jolly good thing because shortly after we settled in our new home I lost my income. But that’s another story.
Our old place was really nice but it didn’t have a HUGE veranda, wasn’t overlooking a bay, on one acre of land with extra amenities, white tiles (which happens to be my favourite colour) all through the house, a chef’s kitchen with a zillion cupboards and surfaces, which made my brother (a chef cook) drool, guest accomodation, views from each and every window in the house, beautiful wooden shutters, large tinted windows, a spa in the main bathroom. I’ll stop here or it will make you jealous too.
You can tell that I’m in love with this place and eternally grateful to the owners for allowing us to live here and buy it, if the Lord will, some day would be good. When we added up all the features we truly came to one hundred of lovely features that we like in this place, over and above what we had in our old place.
We wished for five features and would have settled if we had received three of those five. We received so much over and above what we asked for that it made me cry. Thank you Lord. My hope is in the LORD.
Free Scripture card H
The story about our house is just one of many explaining why we like our Scripture cards so much. Without God’s Holy Word and His support I was pretty lost. Nowadays we’re always comforted by our Father’s Word, it has never failed me. Feel free to share these cards with anyone you like.
Below is the free Scripture card for this week. If you would like to send free Scripture e-cards to your friends visit our sister site.
I found more Scripture verses below on ‘hope’ for those moments when a mintie just doesn’t cut it. Enjoy!
Scripture verses on Hope
Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.
Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.
For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.
And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth.
Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.
I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God:
The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
Let me know if I missed any Scripture verses which you would like to share.
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ABOUT THIS BLOG – We’re researching the truth of living forever according to GOD’s Holy Word; Sola Scripture. Popular opinion tells us that everyone who ‘believes’ and has ‘faith’ will go to heaven. Is this true? I decided to ask the prophets about the truth of it all.
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Free Scripture card – K – Knock and it shall be opened unto you. There is a minimum of sixteen parts to this formula. | Live Forever how to
[…] little while ago I told you how we prayed for a place we could afford and where pets are allowed. I mentioned also how New Age positive thinking doesn’t work for me because it lacks the […]