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Listen while you read: "Under His Wings"1 (Lyrics) |
James 4:7-8a – Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. (NIV)
One Sunday morning, we were about to leave the house for church when we came to a sudden halt. There was a small puddle on the floor of the mud room. Looking up, we discovered a slow drip from a pipe hidden in the ceiling.
This would not stop us! I mopped up and placed a bucket underneath, while my husband turned off the water supply.
A little behind time, we hurried out to the car. My husband turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. He tried again. We looked at each other, perplexed. The car had worked just fine the day before.
Silently, we thought the situation through. We had two vehicles, but our son had taken the other in order to borrow our lawnmower. He needed the truck to pull the trailer. How could we get to church?
Just at that moment, our son turned in to the field entrance, towing the trailer with the lawnmower on it. We cheered, left the car, and hurried over to greet him.
His face held a look of consternation. "I have bad news for you," he said. "The lawnmower sort of … blew up."
Did we yell, groan, collapse, complain, roll our eyes, or otherwise show our displeasure? We did none of those things. In good humour, we practically pulled our son out of the driver's seat in our haste to be on our way. We quickly uncoupled the trailer, jumped in the truck, and drove off.
Our daughter-in-law pulled in as we were leaving. She had the children with her and was following my son, in order for them to go on to church together. We waved gaily as we passed them, and I caught a glimpse of her face. She wore the same puzzled look as my son, who was still standing and staring, bemused. This was obviously not quite the reception that they had expected.
We arrived at church just in time. As we sat and collected our thoughts for a moment, we began to realize what had happened. The devil had tried to stop us from going to church! In fact, he had tried three times. Then, I'm sure, God said, Enough!
That afternoon, the car started up just fine. The drip was nothing major, and our lawnmower is still limping along, years later. I often hear the complaint, It always seems to happen on a Sunday! Don't give in! Resist the devil, and he will flee from you!
Prayer: Father in heaven, You test us by allowing things to distract us from worshipping and praising You. Help us to stay focused on You, and keep us firm to the end. Amen.
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Good word, JJ.
Oh yah, happened to me many times!
Really good, thank you.
Blessings.
JJ,
Great writing/story.
(CA)
Great story! We all have them, it’s what we do in those circumstances that are important. And sometimes, missing church in order to help someone in dire need is, perhaps, what God wants.
JJ, isn’t it the truth! Everything seems to go wrong on Sunday morning, only to be just fine by the afternoon. Praying for us all as we look forward to and go to church whenever it’s held. Thank you for sharing this devotional with us. Blessings.
Wow, this was a great one. and can I identify with that. Yes, and when this comes up now I always chuckle and say to the devil, ‘o so it is going to be a great service today eh?’ and of course it is!!!
God bless.
Very thought provoking.
Sometimes it happens the opposite way.
I read a story about a Baptist church choir where all sorts of small things prevented them from arriving at choir practise on time so none were present when the church was destroyed that night.
I don’t recall whether it was a fire or explosion but none of the choir members were there and so no lives lost.
It is wise to be vigilant.
Dear JJ,
I truly apologize as I sit here chuckling while reading your wonderful story. Thank you for sharing in such a delightful way how our faithful Father keeps watch over us. Sometimes I really think He has a great sense of humour too. I am sorry that you had to jump through hoops to get to church but I admire your tenacity in getting there. Unfortunately, so many others might have given up.
God bless you and I hope your trip to church tomorrow is blessedly uneventful.
Dear JJ,
I had an ignition problem because of a faulty connection in the anti-theft gadgetry. Sometimes the car started on first turn-over, sometimes on the sixteenth, and sometimes only if someone did something weird like walked around the car opening and shutting each car door in turn.
I hope you have permanent solutions to the problems. Anyway, the devil was shown that there are ways, ways and A Way beyond his jurisdiction.
Let’s pray for that with regard to the countries where the devil wants to get control.
Good Morning JJ.
This has happened to me several times over the years and you’ve captured the process quite well. I thoroughly enjoyed your devotional today. It can be exhilarating when ‘that’ happens and we don’t get mired down in the ‘glitches’ but instead push through, realizing the devil is trying to thwart our efforts but also knowing we will be victorious! If only we would ‘not believe our eyes’ on a more regular basis as the Word instructs. You’ve given us a great reminder of that today.
Feeling stronger inside already!
Blessings.
Good Morning “J.J.”
You have illustrated and spoken of the greatest truth in creation! Belief in our Creator, Faith in our Redeemer, Trust in our Spirit guide.
My wife and I are at just that crossroad. She is to have cancer surgery. We can, and do, trust Jehovah that this is His plan, to extend her life: or we can let Satan fill our hearts with fear and anxiety. I think you know our choice… trust in the help of Jesus!
Hopefully your message will cause many others to do the same. Thank you.
Blessings in His name!
(Ontario)
As I was reading your message on Sunday. But still made it to church. …
My thought MAYBE God was telling you to stay home for a reason… which I feel is what happen to us. We were going out for supper with a friend. We went in his car and as I got in I hurt my back.
We were to go away the next day and even though my husband didn’t want to go, we went anyway. On our return we had a car accident which caused the death of my husband.
This was 1000 miles from our place.
Had I listen we would not have been 1000 miles from home. I know when something goes wrong, I don’t think it is the devil, but God is talking to me. He maybe was slowing you down, so you would get to church safe. No accident.
What would we do without God.
Recently I heard a song by David Crowder while I was driving. It was “All, my hope is in Jesus”, Thank God, my yesterday’s gone, all my sins are forgiven. They are washed by the blood of the lamb.