How God Brought down the Giant

It is amazing that with just a little stone, God used David to bring down the giant Goliath. Just like that, God also brought down a giant in my life and gave me a story to tell. As I’ve mentioned, my roommate and I have been searching for apartments, I want to thank you for your prayers and expand the story some…

How it all began...
Near the end of October, my two roommates and I started looking for inexpensive 3bdr apartments in a safe area of Brussels. We looked and looked, and right before Dec found the gem of all apartments! We instantly fell in love with it, and told the landlord that we wanted to take it. They said they’d make their decision by the end of the weekend. That weekend, I prayed and prayed, yet somehow...I knew that this was not our apartment. Sure, enough, the landlords gave it to someone else.
After an appropriate mourning period, and after seeing other apartments, we found another 3bdr apartment. We prayed for discernment, and I felt as if God said “No.” It was small, clean, but expensive, and we couldn’t put an oven in the kitchen. It was Dec. 20th and I had planned to move out by Jan 1st, so I prayed “Lord, we’ve seen so many apartments—either break it all up or show us the apartment you have for us.” A few hours later, my third roommate said she couldn’t move at this time, I knew that even though I did not have an apartment—God was moving. So right before Christmas, when all of the agencies closed until after New Years, my roommate and I re-started our search this time for 2bdr apartments.

Re-starting the search, our hope in God alone...
As we were looking, we saw apartments that resembled our criteria, reminding us that God knew what we needed. We put our application in to one, and were once again denied. We put our application in to another, and were again denied. There were times discouragement, people said it would be impossible to find an apartment. Yet, God was building our faith as we chose to persevere and trust Him.
Then, we were shown a small dingy, dirty, cold, expensive apartment in a not-so-safe building; yet it felt like our last chance. The man showing it said we had to act fast. We were discouraged and didn’t know what to do, so we prayed and we knew that this was not what God has for us, so we felt we just needed to wait and not take it.

How God brought the Giant down...
That same night, I received a phone call from an apartment. During the call, I heard it was near our budget-limit and the kitchen had no appliances, I explained my concerns to them yet they told me to come see it and we’ll discuss the rest later. I fell in love with the apartment the moment I walked in the door. It was large, clean, lots of light, two nice-sized bedrooms, a hint of European class, and it gave way to community; in essence it was more than I could hope for. The landlord then said that they would put in a refrigerator and oven at their costs and were willing to lower the price by 50€ (about $75) making it a steal. That same day I brought enough money to block the apartment. I continued to pray that they would accept us. Within the week, I had signed the lease and had my own set of keys to it! It seemed like a dream and I was reminded of how our Father God really DOES know how to give good gifts to his children!

Thank you for your prayers—I am praying for you to see God do the impossible in whatever you may be facing! Our God is bigger than any giant!