Good morning. I hope that you are fairing well. Don’t forget to begin your day with prayer (BYDWP).
We ended the lesson yesterday with Job's onslaught just beginning. The storms had started. Poor Job. Umph, umph, umph! Job lost possessions, cattle, children, etc. Job could barely get over one shock before he was told of another. That is what I call a supercell of a storm.
Let’s get right into the meat of storms, shall we? There are two key points that I want you to remember about storms and then I will go one into the other points that I want to bring to your attention about storms.
1. Point One - Do not labor under the thought that since you have given your heart and life’s work to the Lord, the adversary will trouble you no longer. Nothing is further from the truth. Just like in the case of Job, the adversary will do all he can to get you to turn against the Lord. And how does he do that, you ask. He besets you with so much turmoil that you begin to think that God is not listening anymore.
2. Point Two - You forget to give all of your storms to the Lord and leave them there because of your trust in Him. Even when it seems that all is lost, you just keep leaving them right there. Whatever you do, do not pick the storms (trials) back up to handle yourself.
3. ????????? Don’t allow yourself to question the Lord in wondering in your prayers, when you do pray, “Where are You; can’t You hear me; don’t You care anymore; are You even listening; have You forgotten about me?”
4. Here is the bottom line of the rest of today's post, Trials are meant by the adversary to weaken your faith in God, to make you curse God. You must remember that "Without faith, it is impossible to please Him..." (Hebrews 11:6 KJV) You see, the Lord knows that you are nothing but dust. And as such, cannot take much in the way of pressure. Yet, He does require faith. Because He knows that the adversary is trying to weaken or destroy your faith, He only requires a mustard seed amount of it.
5. One Week! – One week can be a short time, or it can seem to stretch out as long as waiting for Christmas did when we were children. Let me tell you a story about one of my supercell storms.
I want to tell you about the time that my house burned down to the ground. About the fire that was so hot that it burned up the floor! We lived in a brick house in the small area outside of a small town in northwest Tennessee. The date was April 16, 1987. This is a date that I will remember as long as I am alive, I think. It was a beautiful spring day and, as usual, I was scrambling to get myself and my kind ready so that we could make it to our respective schools, my daughter to the primary, my son to the junior high and me to the elementary where I was a special education teacher. The kids and I had a great time laughing about life and commenting on the way that the gentle breeze rippled across the newly sprouted grass and field crops. Life was good, and we were happy. Afterall, we only had about one month before school was out for the summer. I dropped my kids off at their schools and went on in to mine.
After I had been in my classroom for about an hour, I received an announcement on the intercom to come to the office and to bring one on my aides with me. All of us in my classroom knew that this was a highly irregular procedure because classes at my school were NEVER interrupted for anything.
At any rate, when we got to the office, I was given the news that my house was burning down. I could not believe it.; Still can’t, but it was true. Now let me show you how life and trials work sometimes. Back at the beginning of point five, you remember the reference the reference that I made to a week being a long time, right? Well, this is what had happened to me during the week that my house caught fire.
Anyway, husband informed me that he had saved us some money on house insurance by getting a cheaper policy. He also informed me that there would be a week lapse in coverage between the time that the grace period ended on the previous policy ended and the time that the new policy began. When did my house burn down to the ground with the fire so hot that it burned up the floor? Yep, That one week. You can read the rest of this in the book, Chopping My Row.
Did I have a pity party? Yes, I did. I cried over my kids' school pictures. I cried over the fact that I had never used my brand new china that was in the box and had been for five years. You know how we do (waiting for my new home so that I could display it properly.) Well, let me tell you, it got displayed properly, alright. That fire licked up the neat little stacks of bread and butter plates, china dinner plates, saucers, stemware and all. It was all ashes and masses of unrecognizable melted metal. I cried over the fact that I did not even own a broom straw. I cried over the fact that we had just bought a brand new riding lawn mower less than two weeks before and spring school clothes for the kids and me. This had all been done with the income tax refund that we had just received back. I remember thinking that everything that I had worked for thirteen years had just gone up in smoke with no way to replace any of it. I cried some more.
On tomorrow, I will tell you the rest of the fire story and some things that happened as a result of it.
Doing What I Can, While I Can Because I Care,
Alma L. Stepping On Jones
I almost forgot to give you a brief poem for the day.
Here is your poem for this section.
I almost forgot to give you a brief poem for the day.
Here is your poem for this section.
Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire
Fire, fire, fire, fire
You tried hard to make me lose
The dreams to which I aspire.
You made me weep like a baby
Upon the loss of the material things
That working for thirteen years had
Allowed me to gain
But you will not wreck my world again
Because I have learned a lesson that is good
From the ashes that you allowed to remain.
Material things count for nothing, mortal man
It is the spiritual things that matter and
Putting your trust in the Lord, Who
Can save your soul and only He can.
Fire, fire, fire, fire
I still have dreams to which I aspire
But they cannot be touched by the likes of you
Because they are built around my Father
Who has allowed me to know what I should value.
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