God told me to give it all away...

Back in 2019, my daughter and I found ourselves in a place I never imagined we would be.

Homeless.

I had accepted a job in another state and made a decision I had never made before. I moved without having a signed contract! The company gave me a start day which was a month away, but plans changed. They decided to keep the person that I was supposed to replace, and suddenly the job I thought I had no longer existed.

My daughter and I ended up staying with a friend while we tried to figure out what came next.

Eventually, we returned to Houston.

Everything we owned was sitting inside a storage unit.

3 bedrooms of furniture. Clothes. Kitchen items. Decorations. Family memories. Years of our life packed into boxes.

One day, I was driving through Houston listening to the radio. To this day, I don't know why I was flipping through stations. I've worked in radio for most of my adult life, and station surfing isn't something I normally do.

But that day, I landed on a message from Pastor Tony Evans.

He was talking about possessions and how easily we become attached to things. He spoke about making room for what God wants to do in our lives instead of holding so tightly to what we already have.

As I listened, it felt like God speaking directly to me.

Then I heard these words in my spirit.

"Give it all away."

I knew exactly what He meant.

The storage unit.

Everything inside it.

Every piece of furniture.

Every possession.

I need to explain something.

My dream couch was in that storage.

Some people dream about owning a beautiful home. I dreamed about that couch.

It was the most expensive piece of furniture I had ever purchased. I had owned it for less than a year.

And God was asking me to give it away.

For free.

The more I prayed about it, the more I knew this wasn't my imagination.

So I called a friend who works on my car and asked if he knew anyone who needed furniture.

"For free?" he asked.

"For free."

Then I called my daughter.

"Do you trust me?" I asked.

"Yes."

"God told me to give everything away."

There was a pause.

"Even my clothes?"

"Even your clothes."

That Saturday, I opened the storage unit.

People started arriving throughout the morning. They walked through, found things they needed, and carried them away.

About an hour later, I noticed a woman standing near the back. She was crying.

I walked over and asked if she was okay.

Through tears, she shared her story.

She had escaped an abusive marriage. She took her daughter in the middle of the night with almost nothing. They were trying to start over, but they had no furniture, no household items, and very few belongings.

Then she looked around the storage unit and said something I will never forget.

"You don't understand. Everything here is exactly what I need."

I asked how old her daughter was.

Eight years old.

Around the same age my daughter was at the time.

At that point, neither of us could stop crying.

God revealed the why.

This was the reason.

God wasn't taking something from me.

He was providing for someone else.

I think many of us struggle with obedience because we want God to explain everything before we say yes.

We want details.

We want the plan.

We want proof that it will all make sense.

But that isn't how faith works.

When God called Abraham in Genesis 12, He simply told him to go.

Then God made this promise:

"I will bless you... and you will be a blessing... and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."

The blessing was meant to flow through him and impact others.

The same is true for us.

Sometimes God asks us to take a step of faith because someone else's blessing is waiting on the other side of our obedience.

That day, I thought God was asking me to give away furniture.

What He was doing was helping a mother and daughter rebuild their lives.

My obedience was connected to their blessing.

And I wonder how many times someone else's obedience has been connected to mine.

Maybe you're facing a situation today where God is asking you to trust Him.

To step forward even though you don't have all the answers.

If that's where you are, let this encourage you.

God sees the full picture when we only see a small piece of it.

Your yes may become the answer to someone's prayer.

Your obedience may change the course of someone's life.

You may never know the impact.

Or, if you're fortunate, God may allow you to see it.

I'll never forget the day He let me see it.

"And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Genesis 12:3