My wife and I moved into the city of Chicago in 2003 and purchased a condominium that we were very excited about. To make a long story short, the building had a lot of problems and in 2007 we decided to sell and move on. The house was on the market for over a year with no offers. It was a beautiful condo–but the market was doing pretty well at the time and there were a lot of new buildings in the area that had just been completed, so we had a lot of competition. We decided to pull it off the market and wait another year. In the beginning of 2009 we placed it back on the market. By this time, the industry had started to slow down and shortly thereafter, the housing crisis started. Walk-throughs decreased dramatically, and after another summer, we still had no offers for purchase.
Then in the fall we received a phone call from my wife’s brother, Daniel, who is a devout follower of Christ. Daniel called and Julia told him of our house-selling troubles and Daniel said that he would pray for us. Daniel then decided to go on a fast and prayed for the sale of our home.
Several weeks later, my wife informed me, on a Sunday night, that she had spoken to Daniel again and he had mentioned that during one of his prayer sessions, God spoke to his heart and told him that we would sell our house that week. I looked at my wife and being a new believer, I just smiled. I was still unsure of God’s awesome power to touch our lives.
I thought it was great that Daniel and her had such great faith, but realistically, we have not had any showings in several weeks and none were lined up. My skeptical logic prodded my faith and we had didn’t even have one offer after an entire year of showings. So the sale of our house was such a slim possibility but Julia said: “Don’t doubt the power of the Lord, with Him nothing is impossible.”
Monday morning rolled around and to my surprise I saw my realtor’s number on the caller ID. Before answering I thought, “Wow, we probably have a showing this week or on the bad side, she is going to ask me to lower the selling price again!” When I actually spoke with my agent, I was surprised to hear her say that she had good news. Someone wanted to make an offer on our house. I was shocked! She said it was from a buyer who saw it 6 months ago and finally decided they wanted to purchase it. The offer they presented was way lower than I would have entertained, so after she told me it, my excitment died down. I discussed it with my wife, and we both agreed that we did not feel comfortable taking that much of a loss even though we wanted desperately wanted to sell the condo.
I decided to counter higher than my realtor recommended. I then told my wife privately what I thought our bottom line should be—we agreed that we would not go any lower. We both prayed and felt comfortable with our decision. Later that day my realtor called back and said the buyer countered. When she told me what the offer was—I could not believe it—it was exactly what my bottom line was!
We accepted it. I was dumbfounded that after almost 2 and a half years of hell trying to sell our home, within one weekend of a prayer and a fast, our house was sold! When I finished the details with our realtor and hung up the phone, I vividly recalled what my wife had told me the day before about Daniel’s prediction.
Since that time I have kept a journal of all the miracles I have noticed from God, which most non-believers would say are mere coincidence. As a true follower of Christ, I know otherwise. All good things come from God. I give Him the credit and glory for all that He has blessed me with. I am not the only one being blessed, though. I believe God works miracles in all of our lives all of the time. But, unfortunately, most of them are too “small” and go unappreciated, so they slip under the radar.
Since I have been taking note and watching for God working in my life, I have collected countless other stories that go way beyond mere “coincidence” and into a category I consider the: “Whoa Zone”. Reflecting on these moments always builds my faith and gives me hope. When this life is over, I know that our God who remembers the “little” things, will have “big plans” for His children in heaven. This is the exciting part of salvation: Anticipation for God’s loving blessings and more of Him!