God Owns the Cattle on a Thousand Hills

I'm not sure how to begin this retelling of events, without telling too much or leaving out important parts of the story.  But here goes:

My husband and I lived in Wisconsin after we were married for about two years.  Then, due to numerous events that I will not go into, we moved to Ohio.  The whole time we were there, Joel would periodically tell me that he really felt we were supposed to live in Wisconsin.  The situation in Wisconsin was totally impossible and humanly speaking, there was no way we could live there again.  We would discuss it and he would pray about it.  A few months later the same thing would happen.

Years past, and finally my husband was desperate to know what God's will was in the matter.  We both fasted and prayed and God gave him a dream.  He put a fleece before the Lord, asking that if the dream and what he was feeling really was of God that our house would sell within thirty days.  That Saturday afternoon he put a "For Sale" sign at the end of our drive.  We went to church that evening and again on Sunday.  Monday morning a car pulled into the drive and the couple bought our house.  We packed, loaded Joel's straight truck and left for Wisconsin exactly thirty days from the day that he first put up the sign. 

Joel owned his own truck and was leased to a company in Columbus.  They had a sub plant in Milwaukee, so Joel transferred there with no difficulty.  He would be driving two and a half hours to work, but would pick up his loads and deliver them on his way home. 

We found a house and began to settle in.  It was wonderful knowing that we were in the will of the Lord, although we faced many battles.

A year passed.  The trucking industry was in trouble, especially in this area.  Despite living very frugally, the truck was losing money.  Joel tried to sell it, looking for another job, all to no avail.  There were no buyers and no jobs available.  Finally, a previous co-worker contacted him and asked if he could lease the truck.  We knew it was risky, but didn't have any other options.  So we leased the truck to him.  Joel started mowing lawns and doing odd jobs, while he frantically searched for work.  We were living on our savings, which were quickly dwindling.

After three months, Joel was finally hired by a local company.  Our savings account was completely drained, but if we could just hold on for a few more weeks, we would be alright.  As is customary, the company withheld the first two weeks salary, which meant that our house payment would be late.  Joel asked me to call our mortgage company and see if we could pay it at the end of the month, since he had just landed a job. 

I called with great trepidation and spoke with a lady, explaining our situation and how we would pay our house payment, but it would be late, unless we could change the due date to a later date.  The lady was very unhappy and explained that that was not an option.  She insisted that if we really wanted to pay the payment, I should get a job and pay it.

After hanging up, I knelt beside our bed and cried out to the Lord.  We had received a lot of pressure from family and church members when we were first married about our decision for me to be a keeper at home.  When the lady asked me why I didn't have a job, I wondered if all the persecution we had endured had made me too "proud" to get a job and leave my children.  I didn't want someone else raising them, but we certainly had a real financial need.  I poured out my heart to God, explaining that I was willing to get a job if that's what He wanted me to do in this situation.  I explained how we were trying to follow the pattern He had laid out in Titus 2 for a woman to be a keeper at home, and how important it was for me to raise my children for His glory.  But, I asked for forgiveness if I had allowed pride to enter in.  I cried, "Lord, you own the cattle on a thousand hills, you can supply a job for me or you can put the money into our bank account; I want to do your will, however you want to work it out, I just pray that your will will be done."

Thinking I'd better see just how much money we had available, I decided to balance our check book.  According to our ledger we had $26.00, but I could not get it to balance with our bank statement.  I called and received a current statement with every transaction since we had opened our account.  According to it, we had $1,500.00 in our account.  I  checked and doubled checked it for errors, but couldn't find any deposits that we had missed.  I firmly believe that God made a deposit to our account that day.  I called the mortgage company back and explained that we would be sending the check out the same day, explaining what had happened. 

That has been over ten years ago.  At times, we have had to juggle money from one account to another or take money out of our savings to pay a bill, but God has provided a way for us to pay every bill on time.  If we will put God first, He will supply our every need.