The Inevitable

So since we have had our house up for sale, I’ve been reading advice online about how to fix it up and list it and price it and such. A big piece of advice was to host an open house where interested buyers could come check the place out and give them an opportunity to make an offer. Besides, our house has had 2,300 views online at this point (only one week in) and 15 people have ‘saved’ the home, three families had already looked at the house, so we figured that an open house would generate some urgency and pull the rest of the shoppers out of the woodwork…

Soooo, our open house didn’t end up being very well attended. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I was  disappointed to say the least. A few things happened at that moment:

1. In that moment, discouragement set in.

2. In that moment, I took my eyes off of Christ.

3. In that moment, the house was big and God was small.

4. In that moment, I stopped leading well.

5. In that moment, I was self focused.

In that moment, my wife who was with me, gently encouraged me, as she always does. She reminded me of what we know to be true. That God is in this, he has a buyer, it will get sold, and we need to trust Him.

Charles Stanley says that, “Disappointment is inevitable, but discouragement is a choice.”

1. God is always bigger than my circumstances.

2. God is always more capable than my efforts.

3. God always cares more than I do.

Colossians 2:1-5 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4 I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. 5 For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

Discouragement, if left go for too long will lead to isolation, then lead to delusion, and then lead to wrong conclusions and manifests itself through bad decisions.

The rest of our lives, but specifically the next two years will contain, I’m sure, a few disappointments especially in the support raising phase. We are expecting some hard times, but need to be reminded not to choose to let that turn the corner toward  discouragement.

Do you have someone that can always remind you of Truth, when your focus shifts from Christ to self?

#house #transition