Exceedingly & Abundantly More
Have you ever prayed for God to meet a need, only to watch Him do far more than you ever imagined? As we approach one year in our home, I can’t help but see one of the clearest examples of Ephesians 3:20 in my own life. When we first moved to Gilroy in 2018, we visited a friend’s house in a beautiful neighborhood. I quietly thought, “It would be a dream to live somewhere like this someday,” and then immediately dismissed it. We could never afford it. We were happy in our little farmhouse.
It held so many memories, had a backyard big enough for baseball, and was surrounded by wonderful neighbors. We truly loved it there. We moved away from farm life and back to the city in 2022 to a house we thought, “We could be here forever!” Fast-forward to June 2024, when Nick suffered a hemorrhagic stroke. He spent nearly three months in the hospital and several more months recovering. He also lost his main source of income, leaving our finances uncertain.
Then, in February 2025, our landlord told us the house was being sold. Suddenly, while still navigating Nick’s recovery, we had to find a new home. We searched Zillow, toured homes, submitted more than a dozen applications, prayed, waited, and faced rejection after rejection. Eventually, we lowered our expectations. We stopped praying for a dream home and simply asked God not to let us be homeless. We were exhausted and unsure, but throughout that season, God kept bringing us back to Ephesians 3:20.
One Sunday after church, I opened Zillow and found a listing with almost no information… just one photo of the front of the house. I immediately emailed the owner. At nearly the same moment, Nick texted me and asked whether I had seen it. We toured it the next day. As soon as we drove through the gate, we knew it was different: five bedrooms, five bathrooms, fruit trees, and plenty of room for our family. Adjusting to the new rent would already be a huge stretch for us, and on top of that, there was the security deposit. When a friend from church heard about our situation, he said, “Don’t let the deposit keep you from getting the house. We’ll make sure you have it.” Still afraid to hope, we prayed, “Lord, if this is the house You have for us, make it evident.”
A few days later, we learned that, out of six applicants, they had chosen our family. We cried because God had provided in a way we never could have arranged ourselves. Then something hit me. This was the very neighborhood where, years earlier, I had quietly thought, "I'd love to live here someday." I never even prayed that prayer out loud, yet God knew my heart. When our church family came to help us move, person after person walked through the door and said, “Look what God did.” They were talking about the faithfulness of God.
For months, we had convinced ourselves that we would be happy squeezing into a three-bedroom house with almost no backyard. Meanwhile, God was asking us to hold on a little longer. Fast-forward a couple of months, and we met a family around the corner whom we had actually met years before. They love Jesus, and we know so many of the same people. Their children had been praying that God would bring them friends who also loved Jesus. How amazing is that? While God was answering our prayers, He was also using my children to answer someone else’s prayers.
When I think about the timing of everything that had to happen for us to have the opportunity to move into this house, I know it is something only God could have done. Maybe your “house” isn’t actually a house. Maybe it’s a job, healing, reconciliation, or an answer you have been praying for. Don’t mistake God’s delay for His denial. Sometimes the waiting is where He prepares something greater than we could imagine. I was encouraged by something I once read: God is in rooms you aren’t in, and He sees things you don’t see”.
Can you imagine if we had settled for a three-bedroom house with no backyard in just any old neighborhood? God didn’t simply give us a place to live. He reminded us that He is still the God who does exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine.
-April Lemau