Confidence, Faith, Perseverance, and Promises

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back,

I will not be pleased with him."
Hebrews 10:35-38

Isn't this a wonderful passage? It spoke volumes to me yesterday and the Lord used it to bless me richly today! I did something to offend the ministry we were planning to use for our Liberia adoption. It was made known to me that there was a possibility that the ministry may not continue to work with our family.

Eric and I had a lot of peace about the whole situation (even though it hurt to go through) and looked at what our other options would be if we couldn't adopt from Liberia. We had a great second choice (Kenya--www.orphansoverseas.org). At one point Eric was ready to "throw in the towel" with Liberia and just go for Kenya. Something in my heart just felt like it would all be okay.

As you all know we got the call that our homestudy was finished yesterday--but when our Social Worker called I told her to hold off because we might be changing countries! When I got off of the phone with her I began calling our adoption org contacts to see if a decision had been made about our family. I was told that it would be next week before a decision was made due to some other things going on with the ministry.

A few hours later, because I had no peace in my heart, I took a leap of faith and told our Social Worker (with Eric's permission of course!) that we were going forward with Liberia. Eric and I have always said that we would walk through the doors the Lord has put before us until HE shuts them.

This morning I continued on the path of simply trusting that everything would work out with the org we want to work with and (big gulp!) sent our homestudy with "Liberia" all over it to Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Not 10 minutes after I sent our homestudy to CIS did I get a phone call from our adoption org. I received the message that they were more than happy to continue to work with us and any offense that was made is now gone forever.

I have to post it again....

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him."
Hebrews 10:35-38

Isn't that fabulous?! Isn't it even more fabulous that the passage just happened to come to my inbox as a "daily verse" the exact day the Lord needed me to hear that messagee? I praise Him that I was able to listen to my heart rather than to "shrink back." He continues to bless us so richly each and every day!