Believing God for His Promises

Mary was reading her morning scripture passage. Today it was taken from Genesis 15. God promised Abraham a son but Abraham was an old man and didn't think it was possible. God, however, knew something Abraham didn't. He told him to look up to the night sky and count the stars if he could. God told him his descendants would be like that - too many to count!
Mary looked away from the page and thought about yesterday's view of that beautiful house and the reminder of her own dream. Mary smiled because just last night as she and Robin walked the dogs she had noticed the night sky. It was very, very clear and you could see every star!
Mary thought about Abraham and how God looked at him. It says "Abraham believed God and the Lord declared him righteous because of his faith". Mary knew that the promises of God were true for her as well as for Abraham and decided to believe God that her dream would come to pass just as it did for Abraham.
Mary thought of these last 7 years here in this little town far away from Toronto where she had lived most of her life. She realized now all that had happened and was happening here was preparation for her huge endeavour that was someday going to come about.
Mary didn't see anything as a coincidence. She had always noticed she was in the right place at the right time and God was working. However, now it occurred to her that even in the bigger arena of time that spending 7 years here was part of God working on her behalf.
Though her life seemed trivial and unimportant she realized that working at the food bank in Windsor was not only helping the poor but aiding her in keeping in shape as a business person. She had learned some tricks of the trade there for use in the future. Becoming a housewife and cooking for Robin was now being used in a bigger way. Cooking for 50 people at the Mission was no small feat! Mary had not cooked much in Toronto. She and her first husband ate out a lot. She would never have been able to take on the volunteer position helping cook if she hadn't had the last 7 years of faithfully looking after her husband. Mary realized this would be good preparation for a restaurant of her own someday.
Mary was also buying and selling odds and sods on the Internet or at garage sales. Even the little chair she was covering was a potential piece she could sell in a second hand store! Mary began to see the bigger picture behind all the so called coincidences of her life. God didn't waste anything.
She realized more and more her life and time was in God's hand. More and more she saw that God was doing good for her. Mary was encouraged by this weekend and its events. She could now start focusing on what she believed God was doing. She would start acting upon it by collecting more pretty things to sell in her future store, paint and pretty up her house in the Victorian style and continue to work on her counselling and painting.
Life was good and it seemed she had a purpose once again and something to motivate her to do what she was doing. She thanked God for the renewed hope and vowed to keep in mind this weekend's event. It needed to stay in the forefront of her thoughts or she would be inclined to lose faith once again.
With that, Mary smiled, took a sip of her coffee and continued reading the word.