Overwhelmed by God's Grace

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just suddenly feel overwhelmed by the power, omnipotence, and blessings that our Lord God so willingly pours out? We had just such an experience this past week, and I would like to share it with you.

As you know, we had placed our car for sale about 6 weeks ago. For the quality, type of car, and price we were asking, we were really surprised to have had hardly any interest. In fact, in 6 weeks time, only 2 people were really interested, and both backed out "due to the economy." We began praying and seeking God's wisdom. We didn't want such a resource just sitting in our garage if it could benefit someone else, and we also didn't want to waste financial resources to continue paying insurance and registration on a car we weren't using. Aside from the car, we had come up with this grand plan on the best way to invest the money, and began to question if God had another plan. So we really sought God's guidance on how to handle the situation.

Within days of us beginning to pray about it, several things happened. The first was quite nerve-wracking. We both began to feel a calling from God to open our home once again to adoption. Seeing as how A is only 6 months, I really questioned this calling. We prayed some more, and a picture began to take shape in our heads of becoming a family of six. I tried to compromise by researching toddler and older child adoptions (thinking it would make things easier). Then, I thought, we could request a little girl to make our family "even"--2 girls, 2 boys. Not to mention, it just makes more "sense" because our house can more easily accommodate that setup than another boy. God seemed to have other ideas though. He seems to be giving us pretty specific instruction to just be open, once again, to age and gender, to following Him, and allowing Him to be in control. When we/I finally submitted, we realized that our asking price for the car would more than pay for another adoption, and that perhaps adoption was God's plan for the money, rather than our ideas of investing. At the same time, we felt led that we should be willing to accept a much lower price on our car, if it meant helping someone. So we began contacting a couple of churches to put out word that if anyone was in need of a reliable car, to talk with us. That is when the second thing happened. Almost immediately, we received 2 responses to our advertisements, one of which was from a church (I'll call them Person A). Person A came to look at the car, and really seemed to genuinely have more of a need. However, they were somewhat embarrassed to not be able to afford the asking price. We prayed about it. Though Person A did not make an actual offer at that point, we told them we would accept their offer, whatever it was. Just for fun, I did some calculations. I found that if we could get just X amount for the car, we would have exactly what we needed for an adoption. Person B, who was still considering his offer when all this occurred, finally called and wanted to come see the car. We told them that they were welcome to come look, but that Person A had priority, as they were already in the process of working out the financial details. Person B chose to come anyway, and made us an offer of our asking price. Right then, our phone rang, and Person A reported that they had the money. It was less than our asking price, but EXACTLY what my calculations had shown we needed for the adoption. S apologized to Person B and sent them on their way. In a way, we felt as though it was a bit of a test by the enemy to see whether we would follow God's calling or accept the higher price. That evening, as we sat down and discussed the occurrences of the day, I was just overcome with the wonderful feeling that results from helping another, overcome with the peace that results from submitting to God's will--or at least showing that you are willing to follow Him, even if it could potentially result in discomfort, and overcome with the abundance of blessings God has poured out on us as believers.

I am learning that God's grace is something we will never, in our mortal minds, be able to fully grasp, but OH! what a wonderful thing it is. God loves us so much, and it takes so little effort to see signs of that unconditional love and grace. And all He asks for in return is that we follow His will. He doesn't promise comfort or ease or popularity, but He does reward for that faithfulness in His own way and time.