Blessed Are The Peacemakers

Four years ago I moved to a new city as a young mom with my first baby. Jery and I had just landed in the bay area and we had a 15-month-old named Coconut. We were searching for a home in Silicon Valley. As you can imagine there were very few options and very high prices. We spent weeks in and out of Airbnb’s and hotels, and had many meals in our car and at public parks. When we finally found a home that seemed great for us, I spent hours on my knees praying and crying out to God that the landlord would choose us. After days of patiently waiting and praying and believing and having faith that we would get this home, we found out that the landlord chose someone else.

We knew we couldn't keep living out of hotels anymore and we were forced to move in to a dungy, dirty apartment. We lived next-door to people who overdosed in the middle of the night and left dangerous trash outside our door. We didn’t understand what God was doing.

Two weeks into living at our new dungy apartment, I drove to my favorite park with Coconut. Across the street was a Whole Foods, my favorite grocery store. As I drove through that neighborhood God said to me, “This is where you will live”. I was shocked and didn’t understand it, especially since considering we had just moved into a permanent place.

Within two weeks we had the opportunity to get out of our dungy apartment and get into a clean, cute apartment. And it was just two blocks away from the park and grocery store that we loved! Our new, new apartment was surrounded with other young kids and friends who became like family. Within a week of moving in, we found out we were pregnant with our second child.

Looking back on the first place that we were originally crying out to God to be able to move into, it’s almost a joke how wrong it was compared to where we ended up!It was up three flights of stairs. The stairs were widely spaced and easily able for a toddler to fall through. There was no laundry, and only 1 bedroom. The bathroom was through the bedroom so it would have been impossible for the baby to sleep anywhere without being disturbed. And we most definitely couldn’t have handled a second baby in that place.

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I love God‘s faithfulness when I pray and seek wisdom. Every time I pray I experience

peace. Sometimes it’s a little, sometimes it’s a lot.

The Bible says we should worry about nothing and pray about everything!

Philippians 4:6

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with

thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

God is always so good at answering prayers in His perfect timing.

That experience has been a bedrock in my faith. It continues to remind me that even when I’m pursuing God's will and blessing and not seeing the fruit, I still need to hold on to His peace and trust in His timing.

I had a really hard time through those days and weeks of searching and praying for the perfect home, and then having to live in a place that was not what God ultimately had for us. In the end I could have had a much easier time if I had had the faith to find peace, and believe that God was going to come through for me. Even today, I still struggle with wondering if I am going to get my daily bread. I struggle to have faith that God is going to prosper my business, help me raise my children, become the best wife I can be, and make me the best pastor I can be. But I know that when I lean into my faith— and truly believe that He is bringing all these things to pass— it’s all going to happen in His perfect timing. Then I am able to stress less and enjoy life’s little moments a lot more.

So I vow in this season to speak in faith,

To control my thoughts,

To pray for wisdom,

To release fear and anxiety and stress.

Will you come alongside me and vow to pursue peace by trusting Him in faith and releasing yourself from fear and anxiety?

Isaiah 26:3

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Romans 15:13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Love You,

Martina McKinney