My husband and I recently sold a condo in Orange Beach, Alabama, and wanted to reinvest the money in similar real estate.
We began the process of house hunting. Since I was leading a Bible study, teaching Sunday School, shepherding several women, and working three mornings a week, as well as being wife and mother, I prayed that God would help me stay focused on Him and His leading and not become obsessive and comsumed with the process. That would simply have been a waste of time and energy, and a lack of trust in His divine leading.
I had studied the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament the year before, and I remembered that in Chapter 2, verse 1, Habakkuk said that he would stand on his guard post and station himself on his rampart (watchtower/hightower) and keep watch to see what God would say to him. It seemed to me that he wanted to go up to his hightower to look at things from God's point of view.
That became my prayer. I told God that I wanted to rest in my hightower and let Him lead me, so I could trust the process and not become anxious.
After a couple of weeks of spending hour after hour with a realtor, looking at house after house and neighborhood after neighborhood, I found my mind spinning with options and needed decisions.
During lunch one day with my husband, I began to play the "what if" game: What if we don't find anything soon? What if we don't find anything in our price range? What if the time runs out for reinvesting for tax purposes?
In God's economy of living one-day-at-a-time, I knew it wasn't about doing "what if," but about doing "what is." However, I was experiencing a brief lapse of trust.
As I sat there eating my chicken sandwich and "what-if'ing" away, my cell phone rang. When I answered it, a man's voice on the other end asked, "Is this Mrs. Hightower?" I laughed out loud! I almost said, "Hello God."
Well, needless to say, my mind went immediately back to looking at life from His point of view, resting in His leading, and enjoying the rest of the day, from my position on my hightower.
Jo N.
Mobile, AL