No Survivors

Banks.  One of those things you love to hate.  We need 'em, I suppose, but if everyone were on a cash-based way of buying and selling, we probably wouldn't.  We are trying to free ourselves from their grip, but they love us!  They want us to be one of their customers forever!  They seem to want to see us, touch base with us, have us come down, sign papers...they are just so friendly!  We want to break up with them and just be friends, but they just won't take no for an answer. 

Our mortgage renewal is coming up in August.  We are trying so hard to believe that maybe we won't need to go and renew.  We're praying that, by God's grace, some crazy miracle, that when we go down there that instead we'll hand them a cheque for the remainder of the mortgage and then just walk away, free and clear.  It isn't looking so good right now, but you never know!

Yesterday, RM had to deal with a banker yet again and he was frustrated, by how they talk, by the things they say, by the power they have.  We talk about Good RM and Bad Rm.  Bad RM isn't saved (we heard Voddie Bachaum describe himself this way, too...it made us laugh...)  When Bad RM comes out it isn't pretty.  The bank brings out Bad RM.  Yesterday, he and I took aside a day to again, specifically pray for a few things very intently, including the conversation with the bank. 

Right after his conversation, instead of stewing, he read his Bible.  He came across the most amazing passage in Deuteronomy 2.  He read about the time where Moses was trying to pass through a specific area in the wilderness.  He sent a message to the King of Heshbon asking for permission to pass, "Let me pass through your land.  I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor the left.  You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink.  Only let me pass through on foot....." (2:26-28)

It was like us talking to the bank, "Ok, we don't want to have to use you.  We wish we didn't have a mortgage, but sadly we do.  Will you agree to just leave us alone.  We are paying for the privilege of lending, we get that, just let us pass through and don't bug us.  We will pay the mortgage off asap!"

The king, however, would not let them pass, for the Lord had "hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate."  Why would God harden his heart?   Verse 30 says, "that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day."  The Lord also said, "Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you.  Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land......And the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people.  And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction every city, men, women, and children.  WE LEFT NO SURVIVORS." (31-34)

That's kind of how it was with the bank.  We try to get everything set up on our terms, but ultimately, as long as we are borrowing money, we have to do things on their terms.  This is very frustrating for RM and kind of like the king saying, "No, you don't get to pass through the way you want.  It'll be the way I decide."  This time, however, after reading that passage, after the conversation with the bank, Bad RM didn't come out.  He felt strangely calm and encouraged.  It was as if God were saying, "Behold, I have begun to give the bank over to you.  Begin to take possession."  That is not to say we will take over the bank!  No, but there was a sense that God is in control and even if it doesn't appear that there will be a way to pay it all off, that ONE day we will.  ONE day, there will be no more mortgage or debt of any kind....no debt survivors.  It was like I wrote yesterday, it doesn't appear that all things are under His subjection YET, but they are.  We just have to be faithful, do our part, wait and see.  Even if it isn't going to happen until Christ returns, we still felt that it was a clear message from the Lord, to know the bank isn't in control.  Ultimately, God is in control, above the bank, even if they don't know that, just as God was in control of the king.  We felt this strange burden leave our shoulders.  God can handle our mortgage. 

After we sat together, reading the passage and talking about it, we prayed.  We prayed once again for freedom.  We started to thank the Lord for what He was possibly doing behind the scenes that we couldn't see.  There is no other way to pray except to thank Him for what we can see and for what we can't see as obviously there are always things going on that we aren't aware of.

The passage in Deuteronomy 2 ended with a description of all the cities that Israel captured, "there was not a city too high for us.  The Lord our God gave all into our hands."  Nothing is impossible for God.  No city is too high, no mortgage is too big.   We rested in that and went on with our day.....stress free.