more than : more than

I’ve just come home and driven up my driveway, and for the umpteenth time, I caught sight of the sold sticker on the for sale sign outside our house. It’s cold outside and I’ve come straight in to my favourite room and as I sit here in my rocking chair in front of the warmth of the ‘fire’, I take a moment to reflect. I love this room. I have a history in this room… with my family, with my friends and with God. This is the room I will miss most. It’s still a weird feeling to be saying goodbye to what we thought was our forever home. A home that we lovingly created and where, over many years, we have put down deep roots.

Earlier this year as I talked with God, I saw before me a footprint, and another footprint, and then another footprint, until there was a series of footprints extending out in front of me. I could not see where they were going, and the pathway was not complete, I just knew that I was to follow one step at a time and that as I took each step another would be revealed before me. I knew God was presenting me with an invitation to follow Him, wherever that might lead, and in that moment I committed! Not too many days later, God again showed me the path of footsteps and I found myself singing (not out loud mind you, for I was actually with a group of ladies engaged in two minutes of silence!). I was singing the words of Psalm 37:23-24:

“The steps of a [good and righteous] man are directed and established by the Lord,
And He delights in his way [and blesses his path].”

Today as I ponder in thankfulness and gratitude, I find myself back in Psalm 37. I thank God that as we delight in Him we are renewed by His love. As we are soft and vulnerable and open and transparent before Him, surrendering our hearts with all our hopes and dreams, laying bear our hurts and fears and all that concerns us, we find a new place of trust and confidence and discover that God has indeed provided for us what we desire the most. I thank God that He has and will continue to direct our steps and delight in our way. I thank Him that He has blessed the path He has opened up before us.

Every step to get to this point has been unexpected. What started as a tiny fleeting thought to explore the possibility of a bush block, strangely and quickly turned into a search for a new home. After more than a year of looking through other people’s homes and making offers, looking and looking, we came full circle and purchased a piece of land, but now with the intent to build… again! This in itself is a whole other story, but today my attention keeps coming back to the sold sticker outside and I marvel at the grace of God and I thank Him again for His goodness.

When we bought our land, our plan was to build and move directly to our new home. As I cleaned out a cupboard one day, I knew in my heart that God was revealing another plan… a plan that meant we would be selling before our new house was ready. Funnily enough, my husband just happened to be hearing the same thing at the same time! Knowing this, we prepared our house (and our hearts) for sale, until one afternoon we hit upon our suddenly moment. As I was walking out the door to collect my sons from school I heard a clear, “Sell now! Right now!”. This was not a phrase I would normally use and it got my attention. When I picked up my boys, our youngest looked at me and said, “We need to sell now! Right now!”.

“Ha!”. God really had our attention now! We had two real estate companies highlighted and I rang one immediately. I then picked up the card of the second agent, but I stopped. It really felt like the right company, but what was this hesitation? I waited, quietly listening to what God had to say and I knew this was not the right call to make. I left it with God, reminding him that He was the one saying to sell “Now! Right now!” and that He was going to have to bring us a name. Sure enough, the next day we had a name.

Prayer covered every aspect of our sale. We prayed about which real estate company to choose and prayed for the agents to be blessed. We prayed for all the potential buyers and the new owners. We prayed that they would be blessed as they walked through our home, and that the new owners would discover anew their purpose and their passion. When we needed to unexpectedly buy a new oven for the first open day, I thanked God for the privilege of being able to give the new owners this gift. I prayed for the photographer and the solicitors. We even prayed for the building and pest inspectors and our neighbours. I talked to God about my need to embrace and enjoy every part of the sale process. I also asked God for His sale price. He told me how much we would get and we planned our asking price with this in mind.

But. A. Strange. Thing. Happened.

A verse from the Bible kept popping up in my world. I mean, over and over and over again. It was so repetitive I finally realised God was again trying to get my attention!

The verse was Ephesians 3:20:

“Now to Him who is able to carry out His purpose and do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think, infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

I read it through and I pondered. A light began to dawn. God now wanted us to expect more than our asking price. That felt a little crazy, but God had been leading every step, so we dared to ask and hope!

The day we locked in our first open for inspection was the same day we had something else pop up in our world. What was God up to now? This unknown, took the adventure of selling our home to a whole new level of faith. As I sat down with my sister with a cup of coffee, I considered the mug I held in my hands and God pointed out that my mug did not have a handle. In that moment, God reached deep into my heart and He promised, “You are not the one holding the handle here. I am holding the handle. I’ve got this. Rest in me. Trust in me. Delight in me. Enjoy this faith adventure and watch and see what I will do!”. That deep place in my heart knows that God is faithful. When I’m living from this deep place of abiding, where God is so real to me and where I have developed my history with Him, I know without doubt that He loves me, has good things for me, always does what He says He will do and His word never returns to Him empty. His word always accomplishes what He sends it out to accomplish!

Guess what? Selling our home went to a whole new place after that. It felt fun and exciting and I was filled with expectant hope and faith. God was in control. God knew what He was doing. God was directing our steps. God was blessing our path. God’s grace was all over it. Just three hours after the house was officially on the market our agent called and said we had someone interested in buying… already! Three days later we had our first open house and as we walked out the door, I said to God, “We have done everything we knew to do to be ready for sale. We have listened and obeyed all that You asked us to do. It’s completely in Your hands now. We entrust our home to You. You have Your way.”.

That afternoon, after 12 groups of people had been through our home, our house was sold and God had indeed done superabundantly “more than” what we asked, just like He had invited us to hope. Our sale was quick! The terms included a long settlement and a lease agreement, exactly what we needed to build our new home! Our buyers were excited! We were excited! God had done infinitely beyond our greatest prayer. God’s grace was on display for His glory. If that wasn’t enough, God has used and is still using this sale experience to challenge and inspire me in a completely unexpected and personal way.

You know that phrase “superabundantly more than”? It literally means “more than, more than” and I can’t help but smile at how detailed God is. You know our house that we just sold? It’s on a road that means, “great, great”. But. Wait. There’s. More. This word “more than, more than” is the same word used in Romans 5:20 for God’s triumphant grace. You know our block of land? It’s on a road that means “grace” and is associated with the word “triumph”. God’s more than, more than, triumphant grace is at work!

AND… remember how we had something else pop up in our world? Somewhere along the way I found myself laughing at how God sometimes gives us answers before we even know we have a question. The same day that God highlighted Ephesians 3:20 and Romans 5:20, He also highlighted 2 Corinthians 12:9. God had repeatedly said “My grace is sufficient!”. It wasn’t until after the sale that I read all of 2 Corinthians 12:9 again in a different translation:

“My grace, my loving kindness and my mercy, are always more than enough for you, always available regardless of the situation, for my power finds its full expression through your weakness.”

I couldn’t help myself… I couldn’t help but want to know more about this word translated here as more than enough. You know what I found? This word is often translated as sufficient, but also means, “to assist, I am satisfied and content”. It is akin to another word that means “raising a barrier, to lift up and carry away, to take off, especially to lift up the anchor and sail away.” Wow! God’s grace is my satisfaction. His grace raises a barrier around me to protect me when I am weak. His grace lifts up, carries away and takes off my weakness, and in that exchange, His power finds its full expression!

As I walked through my season of winter into a new spring of hope, God had repeatedly promised (and I had repeatedly declared) His energy over my life. And here I was in my “Now, Right Now” moment, being reminded that regardless of the situation, God’s grace would continue to show itself strong for me! What was even more amazing to me was that as I had declared His energy, I kept seeing (as did others who were praying for me) a picture of a boat. I knew this was how God was showing me what He was doing in my life in this season. God had been lightening the load in my boat and healing my pain and grief; He was refreshing me in quiet waters and giving me a place of calm refuge in Him; and He was lifting up all the anchors in which I had placed my hope and dreams apart from Him. God then securely and firmly anchored my hope in Him afresh and opened my sails ready to catch His Spirit wind.

I take a moment to pause and wonder and I am so aware of how much God delights to speak into our lives. He loves it when we come away from the busyness and be still and quiet and pray. He is overjoyed when we read His word and hear His voice and allow Him to be present in our each and every moment. I am conscious that God is always at work all around us. He invites us to put our hope in Him and to expect His “triumphant grace” to invade our circumstances. God longs to be our sufficiency and satisfaction. It is God’s pleasure to walk with us and heal our past, to be by our side in our now and to go before us and lead us into His new and blessed paths. God knows that following His footsteps requires obedience and trust. He asks us to allow Him to work in and through our lives, because He is excitedly waiting to move by His power, so that we can see His  “exceedingly, abundantly beyond” and experience His “more than, more than”! I am also keenly aware of how God’s generosity invades our world when we are thankful. Psalm 100:4 tells us that it is through thanksgiving that we enter His gates. Even now, I can hear doors opening as God invites us to express our thanksgiving for how He has shown himself strong for us in our past, our right now and into our future, trusting that He is weaving all our moments together into a beautifully fine tapestry.

Right here. Right now. I take this opportunity.

I thank God for walking with me in my PAST.

I celebrate with God in my NOW moment and I am grateful for His “more than, more than” at work in my life.

I rejoice that I am on the move… sailing away on God’s Spirit wind into His triumphant grace-filled FUTURE!