Rely on God for all things. Matthew 6:25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Take this to heart and remember when Jesus sent out His disciples, He told them to take nothing with them. No food, no money, not even a change of cloths (Luke 9:3). The disciples were to rely on God for their every need. Now that is faith. to leave everything behind and follow God with everything that you are. I know times where different and the culture was different then too, but I still marvel at their faith and take inspiration from it.
God had brought my family to northern California with essentially no promise of a future. My job was temporary and the housing God had provided was coming to an end. About a week before we needed to be out of the house we were sitting, my boss called me into his office. He asked me if I would be interested in staying on another month, while he evaluated whether he could hire me full-time. My wife and I had already spoken about this and had decided that if I was asked to stay that we would. Now we just needed a place to stay. We immediately started looking for a place.
Short term rentals are not cheap and even more so in the Napa Valley. That didn’t stop us. We looked in the newspaper, online and with a rental agent. We were not having much luck. We just couldn’t find anything we could afford. At this point we started thinking God didn’t want us to stay here because we couldn’t find a place to live. Does that statement sound familiar? Just as in southern California, God had everything worked out. Of course we couldn’t see that so we worried over the situation and stressed ourselves. What would we do? The question we should have been asking ourselves was, what is God doing? How is God going to work this out?
The place I was working was a health club and spa. I was a manager there and also a massage therapist. I was able to jump in and do massage whenever needed.
One day, one of the massage therapists called in sick. I was available so I offered to do it. The client had specifically requested the other therapist, so I called and informed the client that the therapist was sick. I let the client know that we had another therapist to do the massage and the client was fine with that.
During the massage the client and I visited with each other. Normally during massage there isn’t much conversation. The client asked me many questions about my position at the health club and it eventually came out that I was looking for a place. She volunteered a 3 bedroom guest cottage on her ranch. She needed to check with her husband to be sure, but she didn’t think it was being used.
I immediately knew God had placed this person in my life. I asked her how much they would charge us to stay in the cottage. Her response was “oh, we wouldn’t charge you anything. You could just stay there”. I got chills and my blood immediately went cold. I knew God was in that room with us. I could hardly complete the massage. I wanted to laugh, I wanted to cry and I wanted to praise God!
The next day we went to look at the place. We were a little nervous, because after discussing it, we realized that I hadn’t mentioned we had two small dogs. Some people are particular about renting, much less letting someone stay in their place with pets. We pull up to the main house and I knock on the front door. Out bounces Sparky, a Norwich Terrier who proceeds to jump all over me and lick my hand. The owner was surprised, because apparently Sparky isn’t the most social of dogs, but he loved me. With that, I immediately told her about our two dogs. To our relief she was fine with having them there.
We went up to the cottage to take a look and she let us know that we could stay there for three weeks, rent free. This would allow us the time to see if my job would turn into something more permanent and allow us to find another place. The cottage was a cute three bedroom cabin style house. It was quiet and we had access to a pool on the other side of the property. Our son Bryce was in heaven. Everyday, as soon as I got home, the first words out of his mouth were “Daddy, can we go to the pool?”
Two weeks went by. We were starting the third week when my boss called me into his office and asked me to stay on permanently. The pay was low for what I was doing, but I didn’t have any better offers and I felt blessed just to have a job.
We immediately started looking for a permanent place to stay. Again, we were not sure if we could make this work. At my salary we were extremely limited on our options for accommodations in the Napa Valley. We continued to pray and ask God what to do. A couple of days later, we were walking back from the pool, when the owners drove in. They stopped their car and got out to talk to us. They let us know that they would like us to stay in the cottage permanently and gave us a very reasonable and below market rent. So, again God had used these people to bless us with a permanent home.
God is so amazing! He loves to provide for us. He loves to be the knight in shinning armor that rides in and rescues us. He lifts us up, and protects us. All we need to do is wait on Him. “Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10. Just be still and watch what God will do in your life!
What an awesome testimony of God’s love. If we wait patiently He is always faithful. He answers in the most amazing ways! Just look how far He has brought you. I heard a statement once that went like this: “when we look ahead the road looks all rough and crooked, but when we look back it looks like a four lane highway”! Thank you for the wonderful message.