Thursday, April 26, 2007

By Faith, Not Sight

Many of you know that we are in the midst of finding new housing, due to the blood sucking nature of the Singapore rent hikes. This process has been long and thus far, not successful. We have 6 weeks before we will be homeless. Many well meaning people have offered help and advice, and others offer simply dire and discouraging thoughts about how this won't get any better. (except my neighbor, who told me that her feng shui knowledge says the prices will go down in two years, because it will be the year of the Ox. Smile and nod, Gina, smile and nod).

It is tempting to want to run in a million directions, hire legions of property agents, and scour the internet for places to rent. (did I mention we're trying to find a place for three families, not just ours? We like a challenge). But I was encouraged this week by a Piper sermon about waiting on God. I've been asking Him to tell me how to be in this time. What is the balance of trusting in God and yet acting on that in faith? In the sermon, he quoted these verses from Psalm 33:16-22:

16 No king is saved by the size of his army;
no warrior escapes by his great strength.

17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot save.

18 But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,

19 to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.

20 We wait in hope for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.

21 In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.

22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,
even as we put our hope in you.

We don't need to spend hours on the internet looking for places, and we don't need an army of property agents, because God knows exactly where He's going to put us. Will we still use these things? Sure, but with the knowledge that God is our provider and our help, and that whatever we find is His doing. He can make a place where there isn't one. He isn't restrained by anything, and our hope is in Him.

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Tremendous attitude Gina. I didn't enjoy house hunting nearly as much as I thought I would, and with the added challenge of extra families, foriegn policies, and laguage barrires.
I look forward to the post on how God ends up orchestrating all this.