Persevere by Faith: Pushing through the spiritual attack

Am I willing to go against the flow because I know God is calling me to act? Am I strong enough to persevere until the end even when the fiery darts are flying all around me?

Over the past winter, my husband and I received clear direction from God to finish off our basement. We developed a plan to transform the concrete and chaos into a living area with two-bedrooms. Our direction was confirmed when a family offered to give us much of their furniture to help furnish the new living space.

Softball season started. We got busy. We had to replace my husband's transmission. It was expensive. A teen-age girl rear-ended him in a parking lot, totaling the recently repaired car. Even more expense.

More and more demands crammed into our lives; they suffocated our vision to finish the basement. However, when one man, then a second, and even a third, offered to work on our basement, we knew the vision had not yet died. We found it still alive, gasping and barely hanging on. When God gives you a plan, it doesn't die easily.

With men ready to work while my husband had time off work for the recent holiday, we headed to Home Depot to buy the lumber for the walls of the bedrooms. The money was tight, but we knew God was calling us to do this. And we've learned that disobedience is a terrible place to be.

As I rushed around to get ready to leave that evening, I noticed the house was getting warmer. Maybe I was just hot from running around, trying to get things done. Time passed. No, the house was getting warmer. An inspection of the thermostat and the outside air conditioning unit confirmed my fears. We had no air conditioning. We checked it out, saw it wasn't an easy repair, called for a service visit, and moved on with our evening.

My husband had brought home pizza so we sat down to eat. A few bites into her meal, my daughter's chewing made a weird noise and her face turned serious. One of her few remaining baby teeth had broken in half. Really? The evening before a holiday? Dentists and AC repairmen don't work on Independence Day. She had no pain; in fact, the tooth seemed to be dead which is why it broke so easily.

So, we continued with our plans to go buy lumber. We walked to my dad's house to pick up his truck so we could haul the 2x4's. We arrived in his driveway to find a car blocking his truck. Neither he nor the owner of the car was home.

Seriously? Why was everything keeping us from going to Home Depot?

We eventually got the truck, made our trip, purchased the lumber, and built the walls over the next couple of days. However, while we were waiting for the truck to become available, we sent some prayers up to heaven. Was God stopping our trip or was Satan attacking? We prayed for discernment and wisdom, guidance and direction. God granted us peace that we needed to take this step. We needed to fight through the attack.

So, despite a budget that screamed, “We can't do this” and a schedule that said, “This isn't possible,” we persevered through the weekend. Every time I went down to the basement, a nail was hammered, and a wire was run, I sensed the peace of God. We don’t know what those rooms are for but God has called us to build them. Who knows what will be His plan.

One more thing... After we stepped out in faith, after we said, "God, we trust you for this, even though it doesn't look possible in our eyes," then God made a way.