Pam Padgett ... teacher
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and
lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all thy ways acknowledge
him, and he shall direct thy paths.
As we face various decisions in our lives and turn to God with the
matter, its sometimes hard to see how God could possibly get through to
us and show us the way to go. But God is able to direct our paths, getting us to the place we need to be, as He has promised.
Several years ago the company I worked for was planning to move to a new
office building being built. Not only was this new building several miles farther from
where I lived, but major road construction projects between my house and
the new office were scheduled for the next few years.
One afternoon
about six months before the move while walking to my car to go home I
was reminded of having been in the area where the new office was being
built and how much I liked that area. A thought came that I could look
for a house in that area. Strangely, even though I had realized that
the drive to the new office from my current house would be more
difficult, it hadn't occurred to me that I might move until that
afternoon. I turned to God and asked whether this could be what HE
wanted me to do.
The following day was a Saturday and I drove to the area where the new
office building was being built. It was completely different than
the area where I was living at the time.
But as I drove in this new area it seemed to suit me perfectly. Although I hadn't even thought of moving from my current house (which I liked very much) until the previous day, my heart was changed and I wanted to move to this area. I went home and
prepared my house to be sold. Within two days it was on the market and
sold very quickly after that.
At the same time I had begun looking for a home to buy in the new area. One of the first
houses I saw was a tudor-style house. I liked it very much and
submitted an offer to purchase it. It was very disappointing to learn
that another offer had been received and accepted just an hour or two before my
offer was received.
I continued to look for another house to buy, but no house
seemed to "measure up" in my mind to the tudor house. One evening after seeing
several houses, none of which appealed to me like the tudor house, I
turned strongly to God asking Him to somehow show me what to
do. At the time I was exhausted and it seemed impossible to be shown what to do. But as I prayed a thought from the Holy Spirit came
telling me to start reviewing the houses. One by one I took
information about each of the houses and started talking with God
about the house. For each house, except one, I was reminded of
something that showed me that house would not work for me and I would set that house aside.
In considering the one house remaining, my eyes were opened to see that my thinking had
been "blocked" when I first saw it by my desire for the tudor house.
My attention kept being drawn to this one remaining house. I went
back to look at the house again, asking God to help me see if I should make an offer on the house. This time I saw things in the house I hadn't
seen before and which I really liked, such as a walk-in pantry. I
submitted an offer for the house which was accepted. Even after moving
into the house, I kept finding things that work very well for me, and I found myself frequently thanking God for leading me to purchase this particular house.
Not long after moving to the new house, I saw the man who had owned the
tudor house. He told me that soon after the new owners of that house
had moved in, a very heavy rain had come and part of the roof had collapsed. A few weeks later I also learned that the home owners on the
street where the tudor house is had become involved in a legal battle
over a proposed new development nearby. Hearing these things, I was so thankful to God for His protection in keeping me from buying the tudor house, the house I had
once wanted so much.
God knew the best house for me and was able to direct my path to that house as I turned to Him, even
breaking through my desire for the tudor house (which would have been very
troublesome for me) and guiding me to the house that worked very well for me.