Set Free

I got it in my head a few months ago that I needed a new car. I started out wanting a fairly reasonably priced SUV and ended up setting my heart on my dream car, a Toyota 4Runner... which is not so reasonably priced. Jason and I talked about it, priced it, and I did what I do.. I became obsessed. I looked at them online, I picked up brochures, I found the best dealer in the area. We were set. Then earlier this week we received a call and someone wanted to buy my car and they were going to check with their credit union and we'd finalize the deal..

I instantly felt a great deal of unrest that just increased throughout the week. Finally last night the only way I could explain it to Jason was to continuously tell him I felt so stressed. We talked through it, prayed over it, and Jason told me no, this is not the right time.

Of course the way I explain it makes it sound so clean.. in reality I may have cried a little, I may have told Jason that sometimes I didn't want to give our money, I didn't want to share and I wanted to do what I wanted. To which I thought he would be so taken aback, but instead he told me he was encouraged by that because it meant that we may be beginning to give appropriately and obediently. (I married a wise and compassionate man!)

As soon as Jason told me no, and the decision was finalized, my heart felt as if binding had been released from it.It may just sound like a decision of whether or not to buy a car, or as if I am talking about a financial decision, but for us this decision was about obedience. We visited our friends Jay and Mandy this weekend. Jay preached on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and that because of their obedience they were thrown bound into a furnace, but they walked out of it, not even smelling like fire!! My earthly desires gave Satan a stronghold in my heart and I feel as if a war has been waging there all week. In our obedience God released my bindings, and I was immediately grateful.

This morning I received an email from the guy looking to buy the car saying that after careful consideration he had decided not to buy my car because he did not have a peace about it. I just smiled at the confirmation and peace God gave us.

Later I received a devotional from a friend that was nearly the exact same lesson that I had just learned. Confirmation and peace.

"Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul." - 1 Peter 2:11

"The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever." - 1 John 2:17

"You have been set free from sin, and have become slaves to righteousness." - Romans 6:18