A year ago, God woke me up early in the morning, and He told me to follow Him to another state with only enough money for one night in a hotel. He wanted me to trust Him to be my support, and He wanted to teach me to use my faith and dependence on Him to receive from His promise. 

That morning, God told me that He was leading me to a place of “tangible hopes” and then He also gave me promises for our situation. He showed me of some events that would come, and He promised me that I would not lose my car, but that He would send the money I needed to keep it with me. 

That is the backstory to where I am at this moment. Several weeks ago, God challenged my faith in a way I had never known. He brought me into an encounter, and He asked me to “let go” of my car, since we only used it in between moving to hotels or Airbnb’s. 

I was really taken aback by the request, because of the promises that God made. Also, we are in a different state, in a hotel, and having a vehicle was so needed. All that we own is in the car, and it really is like our second home. 

What else could I do, but obey and agree? He is the One who has loved, and saved me over and over throughout these years. He gave us comforting places to stay and saved us from death, starvation, and homelessness. 

I agreed to what God asked, but inside, I felt it was an “Abraham test”, and that God wouldn’t actually take away my car, just as He didn’t actually take away Abrahams son, when God asked him to lay the boy on the altar of sacrifice. 

Then, a week ago, I was hit by an unexpected tidal wave….again. I went outside to get something from the car….and it was gone….the car was gone again. Because I have had to live in direct obedience and follow God’s timing of when the promised support would come, there were times when God allowed me to get behind on my car, to teach me to trust and be patient. 

During this year of following God in a different state and learning to live in tangible hopes and faith, I have had my car repossessed three times now, and it was stolen from downtown Chicago once. 

Every time, God brought my car back and kept His promise that “I would not lose my car”. Also, every time that I had to get back the car, it would cost more and more. 

After my car was taken, I felt like I was hit by a wave, and I couldn’t stand up straight. I couldn’t see. My head was dizzy, and I was overwhelmed with shock and grief. For one whole day, I wept and asked God why He took my car away, and why He failed to keep His promise? I was broken….my heart was crushed. 

I only had a few days before our reservation was due, and I was terrified of being stranded on the road with no refuge and nowhere to go. 

But then the Holy Spirit started to love on me and remind me of the promise. It was like angels brought me bread, and it gave me the strength to believe again. I realized that God’s promise was true, and suddenly I had faith that God would give me back my car. 

I needed over $2000 to get my car back and pay the insurance. It seemed impossible. I also only had about 4 days left on our hotel reservation. However, despite the storm raging outside, and the waves breaking over my head, I had HOPE. 

God told me to “rest in HOPE” and that is what I did. I prayed to God and asked Him to save my car and to cover our room longer too. Every time that the water would be agitated by the strong winds, I would lay back down in hope. I told myself that God knows when I am trusting in Him. God knows when I am resting in Hope. 

It took all of my strength to rest, because resting in a storm is not easy to do. I had to constantly be aware of my thoughts and my imagination. I had to keep myself grounded and firm in hope. 

After a couple of days of bunkering down in hope, and resisting the turbulent sea waves, I had a breakthrough….

Suddenly, God showed up with the money to pay my car, and my car insurance, and supply us with an abundance of food. Not only that, but God also put it on someone’s heart to pay our room at the hotel until September 1st. 

In one single moment, every hope that I had was made tangible. God kept His promise, and I am picking up my car this week. It really was an Abraham test. But not only that, it was a lesson about REST. 

I was in a prison of confinement. I had no way to leave, and nowhere to go, the threat of no food to eat. The key to my freedom was to Rest in Hope. It is like anchoring a boat in the place where you want to be. 

Once you find the place that you are happy with, like saying your prayers and fixing yourself in that outcome, then you let down your anchor of HOPE to keep you in that place. 

Once the anchor is set correctly, it becomes stuck in and embedded to the ocean floor. The anchor RESTS. That is exactly what we must do when we pray. We must make our requests known to God. 

Then decide that it is certain, unmovable and done. Finally, rest in that HOPE as sure, and don’t allow yourself to move out of the hope that you have been clinging to. 

The past few days were intense. I was constantly having to fight off fears and worries of bad outcomes, and keep myself secure in HOPE and cemented to God’s promise without wavering. 

The storms only prove the power of God to fulfill His words and answer our hopes. It is like Corrie Ten Boom once said, “In order to realize the worth of the anchor, we need to feel the stress of the storm.” Our hope in God can handle the weight of all of our needs and difficulties. 

This hope [this confident assurance] we have as an anchor of the soul [it cannot slip, and it cannot break down under whatever pressure bears upon it]—a safe and steadfast hope that enters within the veil [of the heavenly temple, that most Holy Place in which the very presence of God dwells] Hebrews 6~

When God makes a promise, it will be tested by the storms of life, but the key to seeing the freedom of fulfillment is to rest in HOPE, as the anchor of our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. 

It takes such an all-abandoned surrender to faith in God’s promise to be able to rest in hope. There was a quote I saw recently, and I do not know who spoke it, but it was about how we must trust ourselves to the water and stay relaxed in order to float. 

“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim, you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do, you will sink and drown. Instead, relax, and float”. 

The greatest act of faith that we can do is to rest and trust in God’s power to keep His words. The best way to rest and trust, in such a powerful way, is by resting in HOPE. 

Hope is the anchor that keeps us in that place where we want to be. Faith is the chain that connects us to the anchor of HOPE and the outcome that we want to see. 

Although this faith test was painful and bitter at the beginning, it brought out the joy of seeing my hopes come true, and nothing that I feared happened. God kept His promise, and my car was paid and is released. 

His promises can handle the weight of anything. Four times, in one year, this storm against my promises tried to take my car away. Four times, God kept His word and brought it back to me safe. 

It has been just as God said. God promised Abraham many things about his son, but then God asked Abraham to sacrifice is his son’s life. Suddenly, Abraham was faced with the potential of God’s promise not coming true. 

However, Abraham trusted in who God was for Him, and Abraham took his son to the altar to obey. God kept His promise and rescued the boy. Abraham was expecting God to give him a lamb to sacrifice instead. 

Yet, God did even greater than Abraham had hoped or thought… God gave Abraham a BIG RAM instead. God blessed his sacrifice to trust and believe, even with the most valuable thing that was in Abraham’s life, his gift, his promise from God. 

Going through that test brought out so many fears, confusion, questions. At first, I thought God broke His promise to me and wanted to hurt us. But later I learned that God wanted to build up my confidence in His love, and show me how to rest in the storm. 

The key to my freedom and to the extra abundant breakthrough that I received was by resting in Hope. I am so thankful that the anchor held us through the storm, and that the rainbow of promise was revealed as the love of God became visible, and His promise was fulfilled…again. 

I love you, Dannette

Until you see the fulfillment of your prayers and promises. Just rest in HOPE, and know that God’s love won’t fail your sacrifice to trust. 

https://youtu.be/ukIBIbXiJH0

https://diamondsfromthedust.com/