Page 88 - Evidence of Things Unseen

says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack
a man to stand before Me always.’”

What an awesome promise! To this day there is someone from the line of Rechab who
stands faithfully before God. I had considered painting the cover of the spare tire on the
back of our motorhome with the words: “Sons of Jonadab - Jeremiah 35.” I shared with one
man how this story had inspired me, and he suggested that the initials RV could stand not
only for “Recreational Vehicle,” but also for “Rechabite Vehicle.”
David also wrote, “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance,” and it was while he was
sleeping out under the stars tending sheep that he first fell in love with Yahweh. The things
of this world can be a very real obstacle and distraction, competing with our devotion to
God. There is a great temptation to begin serving the things we own, and to devote
ourselves to acquiring more and more of the goods of this world. Being ensnared by an
accumulation of worldly goods, many have been led astray from the simplicity and purity
of devotion to Christ.
The freedom I felt as I drove down the road was like nothing I had known before. I had
no house to return to, no yard to maintain, no worldly obligations to which I had to attend.
I was able to go where God directed, and at that moment the Spirit was leading me to take
my family to Jekyll Island, Georgia for a month.
Along with these heightened feelings of freedom, I also experienced a sense of
vulnerability. This vulnerability intruded upon my liberty and joy, and caused me to
experience moments where I was weighed down with anxiety and fear. This was my
experience as I fluctuated between periods of great delight in what God had done in setting
us free, and times of great anxiety as I worried about what we would do next, and where our
provision would come from. We had now known fifteen months of the Father’s provision,
and we had never lacked for any necessary thing, yet worry and anxiety had been constant
companions along the way.
After paying for a month’s rent at the Jekyll Island RV Park, I had a couple hundred
dollars left to spend on gas and groceries, and to use to wash clothes at the campground
Laundromat. I had no idea where any further money would come from, nor where we would
go when our month was over. These uncertainties fueled my worries, and made me question
the rightness of what I had been hearing from God, and the direction our lives had taken.
In hindsight I am able to see how foolish such thoughts were, and how they
diminished the great enjoyment I should have known during this month when God
graciously provided me a month of rest and recuperation from the trials I had been walking
in. Although I did not know what was in store for us next, it was very evident that God had
led us to where we were at during that moment, and this alone should have been sufficient
to bring me peace. If God wanted us to change our course at any time, He was very able to
communicate His mind to us, and I need not have worried that I would be left in a lurch
somewhere with no provision. My doubts and worries reflected a lack of trust in the
character of my heavenly Father. God wanted me to arrive at a place where I had a perfect
confidence in His character. His flawless nature of love would never allow Him to abandon,
or forsake, a son or daughter who was seeking to follow wherever He would lead.
Despite moments of anxiety, our month on Jekyll Island was a time of refreshing and
recovery. The relationship Tony and I shared had been strained to the point of breaking in
the preceding months, and God wanted to give us a time of new beginnings. He began to
reveal this to us in many extraordinary ways. While on Jekyll Island, Tony and I celebrated