God is still for us, Brethren

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? –Romans 8:31, 32.

If any of you have been following this blog, you will know that it is often heavy with warnings because of these end times, and the great spiritual darkness that goes along with it. But there is good news, also; God is still the same! He is unchangeable, His promises are sure, and His presence is constant. My prayer for each of you is that you may know the nearness of God, regardless of circumstance.

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. –Psalm 139:7-12.

We need to remember that God loved us first, through His Son Jesus Christ, and that only by His own grace and choosing. And if God so reached out to us at the first, surely He will continue to be faithful after we have chosen Him.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. –I John 4:9, 10.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. –Romans 5:8-11.

There are dark days ahead for our nation, and world. It is vital for our peace and well-being that we remember the nearness of our God, His greatness, and His constancy. Trouble for us means an opportunity for the Lord’s power to be seen.

And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. –Psalm 50:15.

Through God’s incredible mercy, and the countless failings of my flesh, the Lord has been teaching me to walk closely with Him throughout each day, and to try to lean upon Him for everything. It is wonderful to know the nearness of God! I like to be sure I am walking by His leading, in His purpose, and with His blessing; whereby through this I can be certain of succeeding in God’s eyes, even if my own senses indicate something different. I stand upon Psalm 37:5;

Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

The following incidents are shared so that you may find encouragement in the Lord at all times, and find strength in an intimacy with God.

1) Back in the spring, the Lord directed us to make a push for paying off our home. This could be a long story by itself! But in the end it looked as if we might achieve it by October 26th, as we had an early pay in November to lean on if we needed it. My prayers were two fold; first, that we might achieve the pay-off without needing November’s income: secondly, that we might get the payment done even earlier than the last pay in October.

Suffice it to say, God really blessed our income during October. There is for us a minimum pay that we count on for meeting our bills, which I call “the curve.” After my wife and I each had a pay day in October, I noticed that the dollar amount above “the curve” totaled $168. I reported this to my wife, saying, “168; that’s 24- 7s, the number of hours in a week. I don’t know what that means.” But the next day the Lord showed me the meaning; that through the extra $168 we would be able to meet the pay off one week earlier! And so God provided for the home pay off early, we didn’t need November money, and He showed his workings in a very unique way.

2) Due to our push to pay off the home, I had postponed purchasing new work boots, but the time finally came. Once again, I committed it to the Lord, because I find this to be an expensive purchase. For two weeks I prayed and watched for deals, but then finally went to a place that has a lot of good work boots, where I could feel pretty assured of finding the right pair. The cost was fixed at an $80 maximum; I had a $5 coupon, so the listed price could be $85. I did expect the cost to be in the $70 range. Yet even as I asked the Lord for His help, I told Him it would be nice if I didn’t have to pay the maximum!

And so I searched through many boots, but the one that fit best was at almost the end of my search: it was listed at $84.94, the maximum I would pay. As I began moving toward the checkout, I thanked the Lord for the boots, and asked His blessing. I knew that He had been directing me, and I had peace. Yet I told the Lord that I was disappointed to have to pay the maximum amount, and I had hoped for a little less. Guess what? When I got to the register, the boots rang up for $8 less! This meant a lot to me; more for sight of God’s touch, than for the money.

3) It is good to pray, trusting In God even when the outcome of our prayers may be unseen, or not obvious. What God does show us ought to encourage us that way. One day I was walking home from work at a nearby department store, having finished my shift at 1 p.m. Right from the start, I thought I was hearing thunder, but it was still very sunny. My wife and I love thunder storms, but are still aware of how dangerous they can be. There were thunderstorms predicted for the area that day, but these usually come later in the afternoon. Something inside me said that if I was hearing all this thunder, long in advance of seeing anything, that these storms might be powerful. With this in mind, I prayed for safety as soon as I got home…

When the storm reached us, it wasn’t violent at all, but simply brought us a very beneficial rain. At this point, many would be inclined to say that extra prayer wasn’t really needed, right? The Lord let us see otherwise! The next day, the storm had made the headlines in the paper, as over $2 million dollars in damage was estimated. At my wife’s work, one co-worker had a tree fall on their house, while another said that over 100 trees had been knocked down on his property! But still worse, we read of a death from the storm. A woman, hearing a crash in her back yard, went outside to investigate; she stepped on a downed power line, and was electrocuted. I’d say my prayers were needed, and answered.

4) One Saturday morning, upon opening the refrigerator, I noticed we were low on yogurt-something we like to have around. We still had 12, but it was time to start looking for a good deal on some type of yogurt we like. My reaction when seeing this was to say aloud, “Oh, Lord, we need more yogurt!” It was just a reaction, and I wasn’t worried-but God heard me!

About 90 minutes later I was taking a walk, and up ahead on the road I saw some type of mess with a white bag out toward the middle of the road. I decided that when I got there, I’d move the mess to the side, so it wouldn’t get worse. But what was it? When I got there, I found that it had been 4 yogurt containers! There is a nearby store; I guessed that someone had bought these, set them on their car while opening it, and forgot about them. They had fallen off when driving away. Three of the yogurts were smashed, but one was completely intact- and none of the smashed yogurt had gotten onto the one whole one! How good our God is!

5) During one 2 week period, I became concerned about our old coffee maker. It still worked, but I was “feeling” like we should look into replacing it, for fear that it could die at any time. I really couldn’t say at the time why I started thinking this way. The coffee maker we had was still performing, and we really didn’t have much money to get another one anyway. So why was I looking, or feeling this way? I surrendered it to God, thinking that my feelings were a bit foolish…

A few days after I gave this matter to God, I was spending time praying in an empty store parking lot. At the one end of the parking area there is a drop box where people donate old clothes they don’t want: and sometimes they drop off things that they really shouldn’t! I noticed a bag setting outside the drop box, and decided to go see what else had been left there. It was a coffee maker! And it was just like the kind we would have wanted. We checked it out and it still worked. We put it in storage, and it was ready for us when the other finally died, some 10 months or so later. What had God done? He had prepared my mind to receive this item in advance! He knew of our need in advance! We never had any worries or cost about replacing our coffee maker.

6) When we first moved into our home, I assembled a number of power tools to help repair and maintain it. Now those tools are wearing out, and replacement costs can be daunting. In addition, we expect to be moving in the future, and don’t expect to take them with us. So when I had a couple of saws go down, I wanted to spend as little as reasonably possible for replacements; I determined to replace the two I’d lost with just one. My choice was between a circular saw and a miter saw. In terms of price, the difference was huge; circular saw $40, miter saw $120! I took it to the Lord in prayer. My preference was the miter saw, with which I had much experience-but how could I ignore the price comparison? I thought I had prayed it through, and chose the circular saw, with which I didn’t have much experience.

So with the new saw in hand, I was set to tackle a home project that had been waiting. I struggled with the saw, and made some bad cuts which required me to buy additional wood. When the project was done, I went to the Lord in prayer to ask His forgiveness. It seemed clear that even though I meant to pray the matter through about the saw, my flesh had overcome the soundness of choice God would have me to make. I didn’t want to shame Him by inappropriately tying His name to something that wasn’t really of Him. Even so, I told the Lord that I wasn’t going to spend yet more of His money to then get a miter saw, but instead I simply asked Him to help me learn to handle what I had…

That was on a Tuesday, and two days later I was delivering papers along my route for work. I was in an area that gets trash collection that day, and along my drive, I… Well, I couldn’t believe it- there was a miter saw put out for the trash! I started trembling; I broke into tears, but yes! I quickly picked it up. Why had it been put out for the trash? Apparently, the handle with the on-off switch had broken. The owner had rigged it so that it did work, but only by plugging it in and unplugging it for power. So God also gave me a miter saw at no extra cost. And I hoped you noticed, that I had never asked Him for it. I remembered Psalm 34:15;

The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

7) My wife and I sometimes shop at “reuse it” stores, and one that we like is a bit of a drive from home, so excursions there are usually planned in advance. And so during one of these trips we found several useful items at good prices, but my wife voiced her disappointment at not finding a clothing item she was looking for; a long-sleeved T-shirt. The ones she has occasionally wear out, and need replacing. I told her that I was sorry she hadn’t found any, and I hadn’t even known that she was looking for this item. Then I said that we ought to keep it in prayer, seeking the Lord’s help. Between us, we offered a few prayers about this matter that same day, and the next morning…

The day after our shopping was a Saturday, and in the morning I walked out to a public school and park area that I often go to for more time in prayer. When I got there, what was that I saw lying in a grassy median area? It was a woman’s long-sleeved gray T-shirt, in my wife’s size! And this shirt wasn’t any “reuse” item, either; it was brand new, because the tags were still on it! It was wet from being out in the grass, and we did wash it, but it was indeed a brand new shirt.

8) This is the last account to be given here, but it’s tough to know where to stop. Just over a year ago, our “weather station” finally gave out. Jamie’s parents had shared this one with us when they were “upgrading” their own weather station. What we had was a simple model, with a transmitter, by which we could know the indoor and outdoor temperatures. We came to depend on it a lot! We have no television service, and no home internet access (at the time), so this simple device helped us immensely. It didn’t take long to see that we needed to replace it.

We certainly had the money to replace it, but still it grieved me, because I considered the cost of the item significant; in the range of about $15-$30. And so the time had come to take action, and make a purchase. I ran a couple other errands first, to devote full attention toward the purchase. The Lord led me to a $1 bill, which I took as His hand on my shoulder, and sure guidance…

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path. –Proverbs 3:5, 6.

In God’s wisdom, I determined that all we really needed in a weather station was exactly what we’d had, just the indoor and outdoor temperature; that narrowed the field. After checking at one more store for their inventory and prices, I was on my way to the place of purchase, and it was soon done- but God wasn’t!

That Friday night was the homecoming football game for our school. And so it was on the morning after, that I determined to take my exercise walk around the school, and search for any dropped money. I committed my entire walking route to the Lord, and asked for His blessing. When I got there, however, I realized that I had forgotten that in some places I’d be dealing with fallen leaves because of the season! How do you find coins in a pile of leaves? But as I walked in this first area, my prayer went something like this; “Lord, logic would tell me that I can’t find money in this area because of the leaves. But you have shown me many times that this is no hindrance for you.” These words had just come from my lips, when looking down I saw a $20 bill lying on top of the leaves! I thanked the Lord with great joy, and then started searching in the parking lot. A few more coins were found, and I headed toward home. As I turned up the last street toward home, I prayed again, something like this; “Oh Lord, you have blessed me greatly today, but on this last street you know that I haven’t ever found much. Still, I know that you have proven yourself to me many times, and can do so now again.” Immediately I looked down and saw six pennies!

It wasn’t until the next day, or the day after that, when I realized what God had done; over Friday and Saturday He had blessed me to find $21.33-the weather station had cost $21.19! That is my God, leading my steps, and meeting the concern I had about an extra expense. God really cares.

To whosoever may be reading this, I want you to remember it. Through the troubled times in the world which are near at hand, or merely for the concerns of your own life, remember that God is still there. There are no limits with God. Learn now to trust in Him completely, and soon you will see His hand working in your personal life daily, and even moment by moment. God is faithful, and He is ever true to His Word;

For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. –Psalm 22:24.