“Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” – Philippians 4:6
You know those stories about how God answered prayer right down to the tiniest of details?
Well, my wife Jennifer and I have a story like that, and it involves our home.
In 2004, we were living in a brick home patterned after an old farmhouse. It was very well built and we loved it, but it was right in the middle of a neighborhood with a shared gravel drive, and we soon found ourselves craving some privacy and space.
So, in late 2007, we started seriously looking for a new house with some land. We looked and looked all over the Nashville area, but just couldn’t find exactly what we wanted. Our relator was helping us too. All of us were constantly on the Internet looking at listings trying to find our place.
Well, Jennifer and I got home from church one Sunday, and we started looking at listings. That’s when she said, “I think we need to make a list of everything we want in a home and property, and then pray over it.” I thought that was a great idea, so we did. We made our list and prayed over it.
Almost immediately, we felt the Lord telling us to look for land instead of a house. Prior to that, we were opposed to building. We just didn’t think we had the time to get involved in all that building would mean. The idea was just overwhelming. But, we really felt God leading us that way. We talked it over with our business manager and with our realtor. The two of them said they felt good about it too, so we changed our focus and started looking for land. Again, we looked and looked, but there was always something just not quite right with every property we looked at.
Then one day, our realtor sent us a “land” listing just a few miles from where we were living at the time, but it already had a house on it. It was a brand-new listing – it hadn’t even been on the market 24 hours – so we made an appointment to see it. We were the first prospective buyers, and as we drove onto the property, it was almost like walking through the pearly gates. This property had everything on our list. Everything! It was amazing. There were old barns on it from the 1800s. A creek ran through the property. It was close to 40 acres. The house was well built. It had a shop. The grounds offered plenty of space for our boys to run and play. I could go on and on.
To this day, we have no idea why the property was listed under the land MLS since it had a house on it, but that’s the way it was! We also realized that had we not prayed about it and started looking for land like the Lord told us to, we never would have found it. So, it was very obvious that God was taking care of us and testing us at the same time.
I’m grateful that Jennifer suggested making a list and then praying over it. That invited God into our decision-making process. It wasn’t that He wasn’t in it to begin with, but it was a very tangible way of saying, “We want a change, but we want to be led by You, Lord”.
God answered our prayer, every detail and then some.
*Excerpted from Josh Turner’s book, Man Stuff: Thoughts on Faith, Family, and Fatherhood (p. 14)
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