We moved to a new ministry in 2008 and put our house on the market.  We had high expectations until the housing bubble burst that year.  For two years we could not sell the house no matter what we tried or how much we cut the price.  It was hard, and it was scary.

One day I answered a call that told me that the house burned up.  I could not sell it normally, so I was sure that I was going to be in trouble since it burned.  I was not a happy camper.

But then my insurance agent stepped in.  The insurance settlement paid off my house, but we still owned the mess left behind.  That is – until someone offered to buy the mess (for a small cost) to build their own house.  Suddenly, we no longer had the mortgage or the property with a burned-up house.

Let me tell you, I was thrilled.  For two years I fretted over the house in another city.  And then the fire.  And then the thought of owning land with a burned-up house.  But no longer was that true.  I felt freed.

When we go through a hard time, we seldom see a positive outcome.  Some people can later look back and see how something positive came out of it.  But sadly, many people never allow themselves to see the positive.

God, on the other hand, never abandons His people.  But you could not tell the Jewish people that after Babylon conquered them.  Though they had not followed God as they should nor listened to His many warnings, they felt abandoned and hopeless when they were defeated and exiled.  Psalm 137 states that they sat and cried by Babylon’s rivers.

God was working anyway.  He told Jeremiah (in Jeremiah 24:5-6), “I regard as good the exiles from Judah.  I will keep My eyes on them for their good and will return them to this land.  I will build them and not demolish them; I will plant them and not uproot them.”

Those exiles spent many years as exiles from their homeland.  They only saw the pain and fear of their circumstances.  But God was still working.

And God did bring them home.  He enabled them to rebuild.  He provided a future when they had never dreamed of a future as a possibility.  He kept His promises.

Though I do not know what you are facing (or have faced), I do know that if you have accepted God’s salvation and trust Him through the mess, He will see you through.  My life has plenty of examples of that being true.

This week, before we officially get into the Thanksgiving season, I challenge you to commit to trusting Him.  He will give you more than enough reasons to say, “Thanks!”

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