A few hours after posting our last blog, we received a phone call from a woman we have never met. She is the mom of a friend who will be working with us in Spain, and she told us that God woke her up at 4 a.m. that morning to pray for us for two hours. I am so thankful for people willing to lose sleep in order to be obedient.
I can think of several words that describe how Jono and I were feeling after our trip to D.C. But I think the one that tops the list was CONFUSED. What do we do now? Do we stay put? What if the visa is delayed for several more months? Should we move somewhere other than Spain? Why does it feel like we can't hear God clearly?
So when our friend's mom said, "You and Jono are in such a heightened state of alert that you cannot even hear God clearly," I knew that I'd better pay attention to what she was saying.
Here's a summary of what God put on her heart to share with us: We must learn to discern when we are to war and when we are to rest. Now is the time to let God war for us. He wants us to rest and stay at peace. True rest is freedom from excessive reasoning, struggles, fear, inner turmoil, worry, and frustration from working to do what only God can do. Rest is the difference between having faith and trying to have faith. God is working it out. He is setting it up. He wants to speak directly to us, but we must step back, rest, and hear directly from Him.
We have warred in prayer for this visa for months. I have prayed for it every day, several times a day. It was like God was saying to me, "I've heard every one of your prayers. You can stop and rest now." We were weary and heavy-laden, and Jesus was offering us rest and peace. We took Him up on it.
Since then we've been trying to make decisions based off of what would be the most restful. For us, that means minimizing the number of times we have to move our family and change our plans. So on Saturday morning, the boys and I will go back to Georgia and wait for our visa. Jono will finish packing and cleaning in NC and follow early next week. We continue to have hope that the visa will come soon. But we also trust that it's totally in His hands and timing.
Yesterday a friend sent me a text and asked "Are you stressed?" I wholeheartedly answered her "No. I have peace." I think that's pretty amazing. Even when our circumstances are unchanged, His grace changes everything.
