El Elyon: Ruler of the Universe, God Most High!

So this week has been anything but "normal" in our lives. We began the week as you know finishing up our first blog giveaway, which the Lord blessed greatly by providing the remainder of the first $10,000 needed for our adoption! Yahoo! But, as we all are well-aware, the enemy did NOT approve of God's working and felt the need to add in his own attempts to discourage us, cause doubt, and dishearten us.

Here is the breakdown of his attempts, all happening within 48 hours of celebrating the Lord's blessing:
1) on Monday night, we came home from a short trip into town to discover that all of our all-season tires for both vehicles (rims included) had been stolen out of our back yard. The approximate value of the tires and rims was around $1000. (And on a side note, the police car in our driveway terrified Nathan so much he wouldn't sleep for hours but shook with terror screaming "Police! Police car!!" despite our attempts to convince him that the police are the good guys and our friends. Thankfully he has mostly gotten past this apparently terrifying experience :-).

2) On Tuesday, we found out that during our home study, a local medical office entered the billing wrong for one of our physicals and charged us for not a preventative health checkup but more of a specialized visit, resulting in an extra $100 fee that we have to pay out of pocket.

3) On Wednseday our garbage disposal bit the dust, resulting in nasty water leaking all under our sink and causing us to decide if we will replace it (for another $100) or simply run pipes in place of it.

So, humanly speaking, by Tuesday night we were starting to get quite disheartened, thinking about how we'd been blessed with several hundred dollars toward our adoption, only to be hammered with over $1000 in loss so quickly. The devil began planting thoughts in our minds like, "Did God REALLY ask you to adopt? I mean really, this is not going well. You can't even get "ahead". What are you doing?" and "You're having a baby in June. Just give up on this whole adoption thing for a few years until life is more settled and stable. Did God REALLY say you were to take this journey now?"

But the Lord is so SO faithful to "outspeak" the devil in moments like this. Through His Word, reflecting on the "stones of rememberance" He's placed in our lives to this point, and through encouraging small group discussion last night, He reminded us that He is indeed El Elyon: the Ruler of the universe, God most high! Our midweek small group has been studying the names of God, and this was one featured several weeks ago but is resounding in our hearts today.

We'd like to leave you with this passage of Scripture today as we're praising the Lord for WHO HE IS! He speaks truth into our hearts as we trust Him, and He is so faithful to guide us in His paths as He rules over all! May you be encouraged by His Word today:

Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
    Let the whole world know what he has done.
Sing to him; yes, sing his praises.
    Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.
Exult in his holy name;
    rejoice, you who worship the Lord.
Search for the Lord and for his strength;
    continually seek him.
Remember the wonders he has performed,
    his miracles, and the rulings he has given

Psalm 105:1-5