One Account of God's Unfailing Sovereignty

“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” -Isaiah 65:24.

My wife & I were blessed to purchase a washer-dryer on September 10^th, 2023; a wonderful supply for our needs. Yet it took 67 more days (11/16/23) to fully realize just how incredible it was.

We returned from Africa June 7^th of this year, obeying the Lord, even though we'd never thought we'd return to America. And so began the process of re-establishment here, for all our previous goods had been surrendered before leaving (except for clothes, and a few necessities we carried with us).

Jamie's parents had graciously allowed us to borrow a little money in order that we could leave the motel sooner, and get into an apartment. This had only a washer-dryer hookup for a stackable unit, and so we often did wash at laundromats, aiming for a day when we might have our own unit at home.

And so we “shopped around” via internet for the used stackable type of unit we needed, and found prices ranging from $350-500. We had hoped to find something cheaper, but were sure that the Lord would supply our need (Philippians 4:19), whatever the cost. But there was something more pressing that had to be done first, and that was to pay back the money we'd borrowed, before spending more money on ourselves. We were pricing the washer-dryer units, but wouldn't make a move toward purchasing until our debt was paid (Romans 13:8).

But on August 8^th, we were still a month away from repaying the loan when a seemingly unrelated event occurred. When I went to the laundromat to do wash that day, I forgot to bring our detergent, and decided that I would just go ahead and purchase the single use detergent from a vending machine for that day...

The machine took my money, and gave me nothing! No directions were evident on the machine, or a price, and it didn't indicate the product was sold out. I tried twice, just in case I had missed seeing something, but it took my 75 cents each time without giving product. I was simply going to do the wash with only the water, but then I saw “empty” detergent bottles in the recycle bin-and managed to get about 25% of one detergent cap to use for cleaning! It helped, the Lord being merciful.

I left a note for the keeper of the facility, and he later graciously returned the $1.50 I'd lost...

Fast forward now to that 2^nd weekend in September, and there was another load of wash waiting to be done; I could go on either Friday the 8^th, or Sunday the 10^th. We also planned to stop by Jamie's parents on Sunday to repay their loan to us. I'm reluctant to do a lot of extra work on Sundays, so I really prayed it through, and was certain that God was leading me to go on Sunday. It was the first time I had been back at this same laundromat I struggled at, since August 8^th,

When I use this particular laundromat, I always go to the left side where there is a seating area with magazines, a drink machine, and a restroom. But while seated there, I was curious about the soap machine that took my money, and that was on the other side of the building. I walked over to check it out, and found no new instructions (warnings!) awaiting any future patrons. The machine was on the corner of the wall, and on the other side was a bulletin board for people to hang up information of personal interest-including items for sale!

I was the first and only patron there at 6:30 a.m., and read the hand-written advertisement for a stackable washer-dryer for sale; a 5 year old Kenmore brand for just $100! Praise the Lord! Yet still I needed to wait until our loan was repaid, before contacting; which I did, accompanied by much prayer!

The man who was handling this sale was doing so for a new neighbor that was just moving in next to him in his mobile home community. In fact, the home was still almost empty of their goods when we were there. They apparently didn't want the units, and he agreed to take care of disposing them. He told us he had only posted the sale note at the laundromat the day before (Saturday), so if I'd done wash on the Friday, it would NOT have been there!

But brethren, all of this move of God began way back on August 8^th, when I forgot detergent. Because of that, I determined to buy from the vending machine, which took my money; and because this frustrating event occurred, I walked over to the other side of the laundromat to check on it again, discovering the bulletin board, and the washer-dryer listed for sale! This was on the day we were due to pay off the loan, which needed to happen before looking make a purchase. Back on August 8^th, we weren't praying hard over this issue yet, seeing the debt payoff was still a month away. But God was doing all this well in advance! And the new tenant moving in was also not in place at that time.

There is yet, however, one more thing to share; the washer-dryer combo was way beyond our expectations. I've seen & used stackables before, but this was a FULL SIZE washer and dryer, made to be stackable, with a lot of electronic extras. We've seen these individually priced new at some $1300 a piece. The down side was that they were very heavy, especially the washer, but God upheld us.

God is so good to us, isn't He? His hand was in it all; my forgetting detergent, the vending machine not working, the new tenant moving in, directing me which day to do the wash, and the posting of the sale notice. Oh, that we might trust God more, far beyond what we immediately see-for He will indeed work “all things together for the good” of those who love Him, and are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” -Psalm 27:13,14.

“Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” -Psalm 107:8.

Here is a link to the YouTube video I did on this subject https://youtu.be/TuVHZRfFerc.

Never Alone in the Fight against Sin

“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” -Psalm 103:13,14.

A Christian's battle with temptation & sin is ongoing, and it will be so throughout our earthly lives. Paul acknowledges this in Romans 7:18-21, so please read these verses carefully;

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” Bold type added for emphasis.

We can thank God that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin (1 John 1:7), and that we have access by faith into this grace through which we stand (Romans 5:1,2). Yet our fight remains with the devil, who is our accuser (Revelation 12:10), and he seeks to undermine our relationship with God by shame and isolation. First, we feel shame because we have failed our Savior, who bore our sins on the cross to save us. Secondly, this shame isolates us; we feel ALONE in our failure, alone in struggling against the sins that beset us. Remember that the devil is a liar (John 8:44)), and if God has so loved us that He sent Jesus to die for us when we as yet wanted nothing to do with Him, He will love us now when we are seeking to please Him, and sometimes fall short;

“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.” -Romans 5:8-10.

And I hope you can appreciate the weight of the scriptures when they tell us that there is nothing new under the sun. Others have struggled as we do. Others have fallen like we have, and many that may seem stronger have done far worse. Maybe that's because the greater our efforts and desire is to serve the Lord, the more Satan resists!

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” -Ecclesiastes 1:9.

But this theme is repeated in the New Testament as well, addressing more directly how sin & temptation relates to it. In 1 Corinthians 10:12&13 we read;

“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

There are 2 points from verse 13 I'd like to emphasize, and the first is when scripture describes ALL temptation as, “common to man.” Whatever you face, or struggle with, it isn't unique to you, as if you alone are the problem-but the devil wants you to feel alone, ashamed, and by this you will have trouble finding the help or forgiveness that you need. Remember that the temptation is only common.

Think of King David, when he fell into adultery with Bathsheba; he told multiple lies to cover his sin, and ultimately had her husband killed to turn away scrutiny of her pregnant state (2 Samuel chapters 11,12). David violated at least 4 of the 10 commandments in that he coveted, committed adultery, lied, and killed. But of all God's heroes in the Bible, only David was referred to as a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22). Now if this great man of God could fall by such an egregious sin, surely this can happen to anyone!

Yet when periods of temptation arise, remember that the Lord is still with you; AND that He has promised to make a “way of escape” for you to bear it! This is a promise from the Word of God for us to lay hold of, brethren. Pray hard, dig deep, wait patiently upon the Lord to reveal the way which He has already made for your escape. Follow the way in which God is leading you, and not a way bent on pleasing others; you are the Lord's, and it is to Him you will answer; we are justified in Christ.

“Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.” -1 Corinthians 7:23

“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” -Galatians 1:10.

“So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” -Romans 14:12.

“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” -Romans 8:33,34.

And in seeking that way of escape, God has promised to give WISDOM to those who ask Him for it, even though persistence in asking may be in order (Matthew 7:7-11).

“...the acknowledgement of God...and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” -from Colossians 2:2&3.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” -James 1:5.

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” -James 3:17.

Please do not take temptation or sin lightly, but neither let it overwhelm you, for that's exactly what our adversary aims to do (1 Peter 5:8). Nothing foisted upon us can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38,39); who paid the ultimate price for us to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:18).

We read earlier how even Paul lamented over his own struggles with sin and temptation, and concluded it to be unavoidable that sin would be with him-even when he longed to do what was good. But how could Paul go on from such a point of discouragement? Just listen to the conclusion he reached through God the Holy Spirit in the same section of scripture;

“For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” -Romans 7:22-8:2. Bold type was added for emphasis.

Therefore when we are born-again through Jesus (John 3:7), we have been forgiven, and receive His righteousness for our own; and when we then continue to walk after the leading of God's own Spirit, we are NOT condemned in our struggle against the flesh. Many Bible versions cut out the key phrase, “who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” from verse one; but this phrase is an identifier of who is REALLY “in Christ Jesus”, and to cut it out is tampering with God's Word!

“What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” -Deuteronomy 12:32.

“For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.” -2 Corinthians 2:17.

Jesus' sacrifice through the cross has already won the victory in our fight against sin-we cannot succeed otherwise. Yet it is still for us to fight this battle with prayer on a daily basis, and not faint. The Lord hears us, and has promised us the victory as we follow after the will of God.

“Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.” -1 John 3:21,22.

Time Doesn't Limit Our God

 “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” -John 1:3.

The Bible tells us that God created ALL things, and did so through His Son, Jesus Christ; see Colossians 1:12-17. We know by this that God can never be limited by His own creation apart from His own choosing, and He is faithful to the promises He gave us in the Bible.

“For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” -Psalm 119:89.

“If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” -2 Timothy 2:13.

As believers in Christ, we know how important faith is, for without it we cannot please God (Hebrews 11:6). All of the while we remain here in the flesh we must pray and seek God diligently to expand and abolish any limitations to our faith; we NEED this, for the weaknesses of our flesh, and the contentions we get from the devil.

There may be many things we can point to that may limit our faith, and service to Christ, but I contend that the greatest single prohibitive factor is TIME. Please take a few moments to consider all of what we might accomplish, IF ONLY WE HAD MORE TIME. Many movies have had this as a theme, where a person goes back in time to the earlier days of his/her life, and gets a chance to change their “destiny” by making other choices. This, of course, can never really happen; yet GOD himself won't be limited by time.

“For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” -Psalm 90:4.

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” -2 Peter 3:8.

These verses are meant to remind us that the Lord doesn't have time limitations at all! He is the one who made our days to be 24 hours, and He can alter that as He pleases (Joshua 10:12,13).

“And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz.” -2 Kings 20:9-11.

Nothing, but nothing, is too hard for our God (Jeremiah 32:27). He rejoices in the chance to prove Himself for His people, for it brings glory to His name (Psalm 50:15). He urges us to pray always, and not faint; the Lord will surely answer in His time & way, and will not be too late.

Please consider when the Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead; although He had been told of His friend's sickness, Jesus waited until he had actually been dead for 4 days before going to him. Was it too late? Remember the words Jesus had spoken to Martha a short while before this miracle;

“Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” -John 11:21-27.

Notice the FAITH of Martha to declare that even after her brother's death, whatever Jesus prayed for, God would grant it! Notice that in the powerful response of Jesus, He reminds us that He is the resurrection, and all who believe this shall live, even if the body is dead! It's not too late for God to work for us in any situation, no matter what our physical senses may tell us;

“But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.” -2 Corinthians 1:9,10.

And so I ask you today, what situations are you facing that seem hopeless because the time has run out for an answer? Have you stumbled badly in a relationship, or in an interaction, and it seems that now it is a lost cause? Remember that it isn't too late for God; it's probably just in the time He wanted;

“I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.” -Ecclesiastes 3:14.

Time itself is a burden for we limited humans, and so we must rely on the Lord, for whom time is His servant. This is a burden which will one day be lifted from us, and it is prophesied to be so; what a tremendous joy awaits God's people when this is finally fulfilled!

“And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” - -Revelation 10:5-7.

There were 2 other occasions on which Jesus chose to raise the dead during His time on earth in the flesh; there was the young man from Nain (Luke 7:11-15), and also the daughter of Jairus, told of in both Luke 8 and Mark 5;

“While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue...and seeth... them that wept and wailed greatly. And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, ...and entereth in where the damsel was lying. And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years.” -from Mark 5:35-42.

God further promises that sometimes even before we ask, or while we're still speaking, that He will answer our petitions (Isaiah 65:24). Jesus also assures us that our Heavenly Father knows what we need before we ask, and discourages long prayers of repetition in Matthew 6:7&8. When we pray, it's as if we've hired a professional for our situation who already knows our case well, and His services are in process! If we will but only put the Lord's will first in our lives, Jesus has promised that all we need will be provided-even before we know what it is, or if it slips our mind to specifically ask.

I once heard a brother in Christ testify of a vision God gave him of Jesus on the cross-while he was driving on the highway. He said this vision couldn't have been more than 2-3 minutes, but when it finished he was at his destination; even though he was 90 minutes away when it started!

Time is what God wants it to be, and He has absolute power over all of creation. So bring your petitions to the Lord in confidence, knowing that no circumstance can deter Him; not even TIME.

“And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” -Mark 10:27.