Living by Faith

The LORD had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. Genesis 12:1

I sense in my heart that God is telling me to share something of my past with you and when I am confident that it is God speaking to me I always obey, because He is my Supreme commander.

Following His instructions always completes His purpose and brings blessing to me and to those whom my testimony was meant to uplift and encourage.

So here goes my heart with Gods message.

In the year 1967 I as a young new born Christian not fully understanding all that God wanted to do in my life and with my life. I began hearing a voice inside of me speaking to my heart and saying to me, pack up your family leave the place of your birth and the home that you have known, leave your family and friends and move to southern Arizona I have a work for you to do there.

These thoughts troubled me much and I spent many days in prayer concerning what I thought God was asking me to do trying to understand why and the reason for it.

Still my thoughts were continually thinking about Arizona and I couldn’t understand why.

All that I ever knew about Arizona was learned from old western movies and the child hood Cowboys and Indians games my brother and I played imagining ourselves heroes and villains of the Wild West.

I was always the good guy an Arizona or Texas Ranger and my brother played the part of the bad guy.

After many days of praying and thinking of what I was going to do, I finally accepted the fact that indeed it was God speaking to my heart and I had to obey His will for me.

I came home from work one Friday afternoon in April of 1967 and I said to my wife lets pack it up we are moving to Arizona.

At that time in our lives we were living from pay check to pay check and did not have any savings at all.

We had only our small children two sons and a daughter the oldest was 6 years and the youngest 9 months old.

We had a 1962 Chevrolet Corvair and it wasn’t paid for and $300.00 in our pockets and I was telling my wife we were going to Arizona a two thousand mile trip from our home town New Albany,Indiana.

But how would we make it that far and how would we live after we got there, if we even got there?

This was her questions to me, and I said to her we are going with faith in God who promises to provide for us everything that we need.

And so we said our good byes to the family and friends and headed west after traveling about four days on the road we reached our destination, Tucson Arizona.

We arrived late in the evening on a Friday afternoon and of all things we wound up on a beautiful area called Miracle Mile.

With only about $150.00 dollars left of our $300.00 that we started out with we stopped at a motel called the Don Motel there on the Miracle Mile strip.

Keep in mind we had no relatives and no friends in this strange city that God had sent us to and all we had for our survival was $150.00 dollars and our faith in God to provide for us.

Out of that$150.00 dollars we paid for a one week stay and settled in for the week end.

On Monday morning I got up early left my family at the motel and went job hunting not knowing my way around in this big city I just drove up one street and down another.

After an hour or two I passed this one company my eyes were fixed upon it and it seemed as though the Spirit of the Lord was saying to me, this is it go in here and ask for a job.

And so I parked my car and went inside the building I told them that I was a stranger in town and looking for a job.

After an interview with the boss telling him about myself and the experience that I had to offer his company. Offering to show him letters of recommendation from my previous employers in Indiana.

He said to me you are hired I don’t need to read your letters I want to see your performance.

I worked for that company and lived in Arizona 18 years before moving my family to Texas in the winter of 1979.

I want to tell you that during all those years in Arizona and as well our years here in Texas God has kept his promises to Mary, me and our children He has always provided our needs and even more than what we needed at times, we have seen many miracles of God in our lives over the years that we have lived in His care and expect to see many more before we are called to come live with Him in heaven.

God has never failed us neither has He ever let us down as we have lived by faith in Him trusting our lives to His guidance, protection and keeping.

I will not tell you that we have not had troubles and sufferings and had need of things along the way, but I will tell you that by our faith and God honoring our faith in Him, He has given us strength to endure and always given us shelter over our heads and food in our cupboard.

There were times when we had plenty and times we had little but never a time when we didn’t have enough to sustain us.

Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. 2 Timothy 1:12 (NIV)

In the words of this old gospel hymn I will sum it all up there is no better way to live life than to live it by faith in God.

1. I care not today what the morrow may bring,
   If shadow or sunshine or rain,
   The Lord I know ruleth o’er everything,
   And all of my worries are vain.
• Refrain:
  Living by faith in Jesus above,
  Trusting, confiding in His great love;
  From all harm safe in His sheltering arm,
  I’m living by faith and feel no alarm.
2. Though tempests may blow and the storm clouds arise,
   Obscuring the brightness of life,
   I’m never alarmed at the overcast skies—
   The Master looks on at the strife.
3. I know that He safely will carry me through,
   No matter what evils betide;
   Why should I then care though the tempest may blow,
   If Jesus walks close to my side.

Our Lord will return for His loved ones some day,
Our troubles will then all be o’er;
The Master so gently will lead us away,
Beyond that blest heavenly shore.

C.E.Lee   722014