“It
will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are
still speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).
Hey Gang: Today, June 4, is the
day! I am about to get on my working
duds and go and start my tractor for the first time this year. Those of you that have been with me for any
length of time know that I have a tractor that has given me more fits than I
like to admit. One such catharsis
involved keeping the ‘thorn in my flesh’
running for any length of time.
After I tried everything, sixteen
and a half times, I ran into a farmer friend who said he had the solution to my
problem. He said I have rust in my gas tank that leads to corroding the
carburetor which leads to shutting the engine down which leads to my frustration!
Excited, no, I was more informed of
the problem but still had no solution. Butttttt – he went on to say ‘The
foot bone is connected to the ankle bone and the ankle bone is connected to the
leg bone’ etc. Disconnect each one and blow them out and the problem will go by
the boards.”
Now I must make a confession to you
– I have had the name of this guy on my desk for several months and chose to
handle the problem myself rather than seek help. Does that sound like
anyone you know? I obeyed and did indeed disconnect all the bones,
blew them out, and the tractor began to run like a smooth oiled machine.
Ya, know folks, there is a principle
in that little story. Paul said, “We are going to reap what we sow”.
I recall a story of a Chaplain who was walking through prison yard and came
across an inmate who was binding the bedding preparing it for pick up. The
chaplain said to the inmate, “Sewing heh!” to which the prisoner replied “No,
reaping!”
We do have the unique power, within
us, to turn minor problems, that we face on a daily basis, into major incidents-
when the answer is just a phone call away. Jeremiah 33:3 (God’s phone
number) tells us “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you
great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Even how to fix a tractor! Or
whatever your situation.
We tend to forget that God wants us to turn
our every need, every thought, and our every problem over to Him and use our
talents to be seed planters. Jesus, in
His Sermon on the Mount, put it this way: “For
this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will
eat or what you will drink, nor for your body, as to what you will put on, Is
life not more than food, and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air, that they do
not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not worth much more than
they? And who of you by being worried
can add a single hour to his life?”
(Matt. 6:25-27).
As I look back over my 82 plus years,
it kind of looks like a graph with highs and lows, peaks and valleys; the
amazing thing about the graph is the valleys are those times when I have said, “I’ll
take over” and the high points are when I said, “Lord, I do not have a clue how
to handle this, You take over and I will learn from it.” One day, I heard an old salt, who was dealing
with a crisis in his life, say, “It is going to be great watching to see how
God works this one out.”
So my friend, if you feel that God
is not hearing your prayers, you might check to see if there is some rust in
your spiritual gas tank? If so, you also
might to check and see how much time you have invested in the World and time
spent equal time in the Word and your prayer closet!
Blessings,
Gramps
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