As a way of saving money we have made the decision to sell our home ourselves instead of through a realtor. We are using ForSaleByOwner.com to list our home and are trusting that God will do a miracle and allow us to sell it quickly and for the price we need. I felt good about that until Friday afternoon.
After a very early and very long morning at the hospital where my son, Joshua, had surgery, I returned home and looked through a packet that had been sent out by a local realtor. Apparently this man is a vulture in the real estate market who gets his contacts off of sites in which owners sell their own homes. He was sending me a packet of information so that when my house failed to sell I would come to him to list my home. He went on to state the following: “Records indicate that 90% of ‘For Sale by Owner’ properties do not sell.”
At that moment, the enemy whispered in my ear and filled me with doubt and discouragement. I suddenly “realized” how foolish I was to think that I could sell my house on my own in this horrible housing market. I found myself wanting to pick up the phone and call an agent (a friend we could trust, not the vulture who sent the packet).
Then something happened. We received a delivery of the yard signs from the listing company and I opened the box. And suddenly the words on the sign jumped out at me -- “For Sale by OWNER!” At that moment I remembered something…I remembered who owns our house. It’s not me, it never has been me.
I remember when Wanda and I received the key to this place and entered through the front door for the first time after the closing. We prayed together and told God that we knew that it was His house, and he could use it any way He chose. And He has. He has filled it with foster children, biological children, and adopted children. It has been the location of small groups and counseling and served as a playground for neighborhood kids. We have seen marriages healed in the family room and people come to Christ in the living room. This has always been God’s house.
And so, as I looked at that sign, I realized what it really said was “For Sale by God!” It is His house and He will sell it.
Now I am writing this while listening to worship music in the background. And it is no coincident that Mighty to Save is playing as I type these words…
Savior, He can move the mountains
He is mighty to save! He is mighty to save
Forever Author of salvation
He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave
The same God that moves the mountains and conquered the grave will sell His house and take us to still another home that will indeed be His as well!
