Remembering God’s Faithfulness

Hi everyone! 🙂 Today I wanted to share a personal testimony. Last week marked four years that I have lived on my own. In October of 2018 I moved into my own apartment. It was truly a miracle as to how everything unfolded and I will get into that shortly. But I just wanted to share this testimony to encourage someone and to remind myself as well of God’s goodness and His provision.

At the end of August 2018, my parents informed me that they’d be moving to Texas to be with my grandparents. My parents and siblings were all leaving at the end of October and that meant I only had a couple of months to find a place to live. This decision was totally unexpected and I wasn’t sure how everything was going to unfold but what would happen in the next two months would really increase my faith.

After speaking with my pastor and pastor’s wife, we all talked and prayed about the situation and we determined it was the will of God for me to stay behind in Clovis. I had just turned 20 years old so I was already an adult. I was already attending college and was a Sophomore soon to be graduating with my Associates Degree. I was also established at my church and at my job.

After that was decided, the biggest hurdle was finding a place to live. At the time, I was working part time as I was attending school full time, so I did not make enough money to live in most apartments in our town. I also had no credit history or rental history as I had lived with my family up until then. So the odds really were all against me finding a place to live and it would only be God’s favor that would open up a door.

My mom and I scoured every single apartment listing for two months!! I’m not exaggerating lol. In my spare time I browsed Craigslist, Zillow, and apartment website after apartment website trying to find an affordable place to live. We knew that we were looking for an apartment with a private owner as most property managements required certain incomes, credit histories, and rental histories. But even multiple private owners I talked to wouldn’t give me a chance and I couldn’t blame them. There was no history to show that I was a good tenant. And call after call people kept turning me down. So we kept looking. And October grew closer and closer.

I knew many of us were praying and my pastor reassured me that God would open up a door because he truly believed it was God’s will for me to stay. Well one evening I was at work and we had some free time so I went on Craigslist to continue browsing for apartments. (Side Note: Like I mentioned, we were constantly looking online at different listings, so we were familiar with the older listings that had been posted. But one thing we had to be careful of, especially on sites like Craigslist, were scams. Because most of the times, if an apartment listing seemed too good to be true, it was!) But when I got to the apartment listings page on Craigslist I stumbled upon a new listing that I had never seen before. It was just posted and it was for a one bedroom apartment located in Old Town Clovis just five minutes down the street from my church!! The rent price was amazing for the area, and while it may not have been the largest apartment, I did not care. I fell in love with the pictures and I told myself that on my break I was going to call the number provided.

Once on break, I got my phone and headed to the stairwell to make the phone call. But I had multiple missed calls from my mom so I called her and quickly told her about the apartment listing I saw online and that I was going to be calling them. Well, you would not believe what she told me! My mom told me that she had already spoken with the owners of the apartment and had scheduled an appointment to see it that very week! I was amazed! My mom had seen the very same listing and was able to speak to the owners. She mentioned that they were an older couple and they did not need the money so the rent was very affordable. She also said that the owners had been receiving tons of calls from other people who were interested in seeing the apartment, but that they said they would give us a chance to view it first.

If I remember correctly we saw the apartment in the middle of September. The owners were the sweetest couple and I was so grateful they had allowed me to see the apartment before anyone else. It was an upstairs unit, one bedroom and one bathroom apartment located in the heart of Old Town Clovis, just minutes from my church. I thought it was perfect and that it could not get any better. So we parted ways and my mom and I talked on and on about how cute it was. It was an older place so it had some character and it was small but perfect for one person!

Some time passed but then we heard back from the owners, and on October 1st, 2018, I signed the lease for my beautiful apartment! 😀 I moved into my apartment on October 14th, 2018. My family and I rejoiced, knowing it was God who had unfolded everything perfectly in His timing and in His appointed location. I still look back on how everything unfolded and I smile, knowing that God gave me His favor and that He set this apartment aside especially for me 🙂

Four years later, and I am so grateful for God’s faithfulness. He has never left or forsaken me and while living on my own, He has never failed to provide for me. Month after month, all the bills are paid and I know that being in the will of God is the best place to be. Like the Bible says in Psalm 37:25,

"I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."

God is our provider and He knows our needs, wants, and desires before we even ask for them. Sometimes when we get overwhelmed with the cares of this life, we just need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness and goodness to us. My pastor has referred to Deuteronomy 4:9 many times,

"Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, 
and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;"

“Lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life.” I believe every single one of us can remember a specific instance where God has shown His faithfulness and provision to us. I would encourage you today to think back on what the Lord has done, “Lest thou forget.” And trust that the Lord will do it again. He makes everything beautiful in HIS timing.

"1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out 
the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end." -Ecclesiastes 3:11

God bless you! Thank you so much for reading 🙂