Hey All! I pray you’re all doing well and 2020 has been treating you well! As you are aware from previous blogs, I am in a season of transition. God is doing a new thing in almost every area of my life and it’s been quite an adjustment. The other day I was reflecting on a prayer I had last year which was simply. “ God something isn’t right in my life. Please do what you have to do in my life to give me peace in my spirit.” Be careful when you pray that prayer because the last 4-5 months of my life have been the most trying time of my life! However, I now feel like my spirit is at peace.
I’m currently facing a new trial and that is that I’m selling my home. I bought my home in August 2017. My significant other at the time had 3 boys and I have one. We were planning on getting married, so when I set out to buy a home in the summer of 2017, I decided to buy a 4 bedroom home so I could plan for the future. Well the relationship ended November of 2019 so it’s now my son and I in the home. He will graduate from high school in May. Therefore, it doesn’t make much sense for me to be in a 4 bedroom house after he leaves. However, it’s my home and I’ve grown to love it. I envisioned the home exactly how I wanted it and decorated accordingly. A few weeks ago I felt in my spirit it was time to move. I felt God was telling me “This home has served its purpose.” Well that is not something I wanted to hear at all. Though I didn’t have a purpose for the house, I just wanted it because it’s mine. At the same time, the maintenance on the home and all the costs that come along with it, just don’t make sense anymore. To tell you the truth with my new job situation, I can no longer afford it. Therefore, I contacted a realtor and put my house on the market on February 12th.
My realtors advised the average time for a buyer to offer would be about 30 days. After day six I was exhausted! Buyers always wanted to come see the house, so I always had to leave the house when they scheduled a showing. It got to be a pretty big inconvenience finding someplace to go for hours at a time and almost a full day on the weekends. In addition to leaving at inopportune times, I was also responsible to ensure the house was almost immaculate everyday before leaving to go to work. By the 6th day, I had approximately 40 buyers see the house, but I didn’t receive any offers. I read some feedback from others realtors which were both positive and negative. I remembered the bible verse in Isaiah 53:1 that is often summarized as “Whose report will you believe?” II decided I trusted God and decided to stop reading the feedback as I became discouraged. I however did ask my realtors what feedback they had gotten so I had a consensus, they advised one of the two obstacles was the size of the backyard, which is fairly small. Days earlier I considered shoveling the backyard, deck, patio and pond, so buyer’s could see the beauty of the space, but in my mind I thought, “That’s going to be a lot of work and it just don’t take all that”.
Longing to speed up the process, I prayed and asked God to find a buyer that would fall in love with the home. I knew there was an open house the next day, so after 4 inches of snow fell, I set out to shovel the backyard at 8pm on a Monday evening. I would be shoveling the 4 inches as well as the 8-10 inches that was already on the ground from the winter season that had not been touched. When I first started out and felt the weight of the snow, I didn’t know if I could do it. Some of the snow was heavy and there was a lot (in my mind to shovel), but I was determined. As I cleared a row, I looked around at what was left and thought, “I’m not sure I can do it. Is it worth it?” In my mind it was worth it, so I kept going. My arms got tired, but I kept going. Discouraged, I kept going. Sleepy, I kept going. Weary, I kept going. I asked God to find a buyer, but I also had to do my part in the process. The bible says in James 2:17, “In the same way. Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead”. When we pray, we sometimes make the mistake of sitting back and wanting God to do all the work. However, the word tells us we have a part to play as well, so I set out to do all I could and left the rest in God’s hands.
Finally after an hour or two, I had finished. I was really tired, but I finished! The next morning, I told my realtor the backyard was shoveled for the buyers coming to the open house that evening. She then advised I had an offer on the house and it was for full price!! The buyer was also going to pay all the closing costs! Now you may be thinking, “Felicia, you didn’t really have to shovel the backyard afterall. You did all that work for nothing”. I don’t believe that. I believe God moved due to my faith similar to the woman who touched Jesus’ garment. The word says for 12 years she’d been suffering with the issue of blood and also says in Matthew 9:21, “She said to herself, if I can only touch the edge of his cloak, I will be healed”. I obviously haven’t suffered for nearly as long, but my mindset was one of determination and I was willing to do something that would require a lot of energy and sacrifice on my part to sell the house! I accepted the offer on the 7th day the house was on the market. (Seven – God’s number for completion in the bible!)
Therefore, my question to you today is, “How bad do you want what you’ve been praying for?” God has a time and season to give all his gifts so I’m in no way saying to do anything crazy or this type of sacrifice always works, but what I am saying is sometimes if we really want God to move mountains we have to make a sacrifice. I think the saying is, “If you want different results, you have to do something different”! I still cannot claim to say I’m thrilled to be selling my house, but I’m ecstatic to be out of the process where I’m showing it all day, everyday! I do know God is good and he has a plan for my life if I follow the steps He’s ordered for me. My job is to stay on course and follow the path.
God bless,
Felicia
Happiness in the Truth 