“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” Psalm 37:23-24 (NIV)
Last time we were together I shared how God gave me a chance to practice praising and worshipping Him instead of worrying and complaining.
The second opportunity came a few hours after the call from the doctor’s office. Satan knows each one of our hot buttons. Did you know that the enemy only has a certain number of power plays he can use? He is very crafty with each one, though, and mixes things up frequently enough to try and keep us unbalanced. He knows each area in our lives that affect us the most and uses them to his full advantage.
While he used the “personal health” button earlier in the week, this time he decided to attack two other areas that trigger worry in me. While I can’t go into too many details with this example, this particular event had the potential to create major upheaval. As I began to deal with this circumstance, I prayed and asked for God’s protection over the situation and for protection for our family.
I quickly realized that while what was happening wasn’t life or death, it had the potential for major fallout and required quite a bit of time that afternoon to straighten out. When I did all I could to fix the problem that day, the issue still hadn’t been resolved and actually had gotten worse. However, I had a choice. Was I going to worry or was I going to praise?
This time, I chose in the midst of worrying (I’m definitely a work in progress) to praise God. I praised Him that while things didn’t look good, I was choosing to believe He provided Path “B” instead of the original Path “A” because Path “B” put a hedge of protection around our family. While this path still hadn’t been resolved, I was choosing to believe that when it was (and that it would be through His intervention), our family would be safer than if the enemy had been allowed to put Path “A” in motion. I chose to praise God that despite the mistakes I make in life, He can take those mistakes and fix them when I give Him total control.
Later, after another discussion with my husband (a.k.a. needing confirmation – still a work in progress), God used his words to remind me that our Father was still in control and I was okay.
I woke up early the next morning with the issue still unresolved. Nothing has changed in that way, yet. I knew I would be dealing with the situation again as the rest of the world woke up too. However, I had a wonderful time of fellowship with God while our house was still quiet, talking to Him about my concerns, reminding my Father I trust Him completely, that He had complete control of this situation, and I was confident He would resolve it in the best way for our family.
Then I thanked Him again. Not just for the answer that would come, but for using Plan “B” to protect our family, using this situation to remind me of another bigger decision that needed to be made and then taking the steps needed to put myself in the position to receive God’s help for all of it. In the meantime, I rest.
Which leads me to the next “basic” I want to encourage you with. Come back next time to hear about that one.
© Cheri Swalwell 2018