S.M. Wibberley’s Blog

I have written before about God sightings, happenings which  come directly from the hand of God. Very often people do not even notice them, or give credit to luck rather than God. But when we notice them, our faith grows, our worship is strengthened and our relationship with God deepens.

This week I’ve had several I’d like to share with you.

First, the morning after a big thunderstorm, I was out working in the yard when suddenly a very large limb fell off the tree, right above two vehicles, one mine, one a neighbor’s! But it fell right between the car and truck. No damage was done. Obviously, God’s protection!

I was working in the woods across the road from my house. The bank going up into the woods was steep, so I tied a rope to a tree to help get me up and down. On one trip down, I backed down the bank and stood right at the edge of the pavement. Normally I would have immediately stepped back on the road, but hesitated, and a car came going very fast, probably 60, and missed me by only a couple of inches. If I had taken one more step, I’d have been dead! God’s protection.

I am pulling logs out of the woods for a building project, using a big winch. It’s been a learning process and at one point I seemed to have overheated the new winch and it began to smoke! Not a good sign! So, I shut it off and went home, offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving, not knowing the outcome. The next morning, I tried to use it again—and, it worked just fine! God’s provision and protection.

I let a homeless guy living in our tower use my car. I’d noticed a slight noise at times when driving it, and so did he. When he got back, he jacked it up, found that a strut had broken, fixed it and it now it runs fine. Knowledgeable guy, willing to help, solved my problem.

Last week I drove to providence and bought some metal roofing for a project. It turned out to be a lot heavier than I expected, but loaded it up anyway. After driving a mile, there was a rough spot in the road and I hear a “bang.” From then on at every little bump, the rear tire would rub on something. What could I do but pray and keep on driving—and we made 60 mile drive safely home! God’s protection and provision.

These are things to remember, especially when faced by another problem. As God helped me then, He will help  me now, as I “run the race laid out for me, looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of my faith”! (Heb 12:3)

One of the most effective ways of giving a “response of faith” is to give thanks when the unpleasant appears. This is how we lift the shield of faith, which can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And in the last three days I’ve had several opportunities to apply this, seeing God’s grace flow as a result, setting me free from anger, resentment and negative thinking.

I’m not speaking of blind, rote mouthing of praise words, but of responding with our will to the great Truths we know of God. That He is our loving Father. He will give grace in each situation. He will protect us from true evil. He allows difficulty and disappointment to point us away from the chaff of life here to the rich way of living for eternity. The question every day is, “How will I respond, in faith or in folly?”

Our Lord is good at bringing beauty out of negatives, like roses out of a thorny plant.

Prayer: “Lord, I need your help to give a response of faith to difficult, distressing or disappointing situations today. Help me to remember that you are my fortress and that whatever comes is with your permission and love. May praise be the keynote of my life today. Amen.”

“…you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.” Psalm 59: 9b,10a

David wrote Psalm 59 during the time Saul sent men to kill him in his home. The reoccurring theme is “O my strength, I watch for you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.” David was giving a “response of faith” to a desperate situation.

The challenge came to me: do I give a “response of faith,” thinking truth, speaking praise in daily life? For instance, how do I respond when I get interrupted in my reading; or the task I want to complete gets put off; or someone’s derogatory remark strikes at my sense of significance; or I lose miserably in a game?

I can honestly say that my emotions certainly do not give a response of faith in any of these situations; my feelings encourage me to react naturally, according to what I can see: “He has no right to interrupt me!” or “I can’t do anything right!” or “I’m such a loser!” or “Nobody loves me!” I need to recognize the lies in these and replace them with truth.

A response of faith is not based on the situation but on God’s character. In Psalm 59 David was still in danger, but he focused on what he knew of God and could say, “In the morning I will sing of your love, for you are my fortress…” (Ps. 59:16).

He knew that God is loving and powerful and faithful. He could sing of God’s love before the day unfolded, knowing that God would be at work to bring what is best, to bring him through whatever difficulties would come, to protect him from what was truly evil. The outcome could be death or suffering for David, but he would be safe from evil as he trusted God.

Picture of little Nat showing trust, as we should do.

More from Psalm 103

“The LORD is compassionate and gracious…” (Ps. 103:8a).

You are full of rich love, caring for your creatures with deep, overflowing, unending compassion. You are deeply concerned for each one and each situation.

You watch, observe, protect, guide and reveal yourself to each one, calling them all to drink of your grace.

You are the ever-giving, ever-sharing, ever-generous, ever-kind and ever-helping God.

You provide air, sunshine, food, water, relationships, beauty, protection, guidance and wisdom. You generously pour out on us your goodness every day.

When we awake, you are there, while we sleep you watch over us. Your unending supply of all that is good never fails, you are graciousness itself and we exalt you for that.

“He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel….” Psalm 103:7

You, Lord God, our Heavenly Father, are the God of revelation. You make known to your creatures what we cannot possibly learn from research, study or observation. You spoke to Abraham, you spoke to Jacob, you spoke to Moses and Aaron, revealing to them what was needed.

Praise be to you that you do not leave human beings in the dark about yourself. Praise you that you had Moses and others write it all down so we could learn these things, too.

You revealed to them your acts, your way of thinking and judging, your way of loving and directing—and through these revelations, you showed your character. You spoke through your mighty deeds done for Israel in bringing them out of Egypt: the 10 plagues; the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night; rescuing Israel from Pharaoh by opening the Red Sea; providing manna, water, birds and protection in the desert—we stand in awe of these displays of your power and wisdom and majesty.

Thank you that you revealed yourself to me, making yourself known and my need for you known. I praise you for your great and unending Love, your gracious kindness, you deep wisdom, all of which you revealed to us in Scripture and then to us personally. Thank you for bringing us into your Kingdom so we can know you better. Help us to live in the light of that revelation!

Part Three of the lessons God had for me.

In my quiet time, while thinking through these events, it struck me that my irritation and worry at the airport were “glory-stealers.” That is, by my worry I was saying “The Lord isn’t handling this well, so I’d better jump in and help Him out!” There was no faith in that response and thereby I was stealing His glory. But when He reminded me to trust Him and to rest in His strength, I was able to praise without any solution in sight– that gave Him glory!

This insight opened up a whole new perspective for me: in every response I can steal glory from God or give it to Him!

The next morning there was opportunity to practice this. We were getting ready to go to the office; Barbara was carefully arranging everything in our room before leaving and I was getting impatient. Then the Spirit reminded me: “Isn’t impatience a ‘glory-stealer?’”

“Oh, right, Lord! I repent; thank you for this delay and the patience you offer me!” My heart calmed down, I relaxed, all went well, and most importantly, God was glorified before all the angels and demons, as well as the great cloud of witnesses watching us. And we got there on time.

So I encourage us all to take a closer look at our reactions and be aware that sins such as worry, complaining, negativity and impatience are all glory-stealers. At the same time they are also opportunities to repent, deny what is natural and give glory to God through trust and praise. All the spiritual beings around us see it clearly, as do many human beings!  “He who offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me and opens the way that I may show him the salvation of the Lord” (Ps. 50:23).

Part 2 of opportunities to trust God and offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving.

So we flew to to our final destination after a delay, arriving late.  While waiting for our luggage, I tried to call the office to see who would pick us up. If they came right away, there was time to make our two interviews scheduled for that afternoon. However, all I got was the answering machine (turns out I was using the wrong number).

I began to get irritated; worry and anger were not far behind. As I went out and looked up and down the line of waiting cars, again the Spirit spoke, “Can you thank me for this one?” My reply this time was more reluctant. “All right, Lord, I will praise you.” My will engaged, but my emotions were elsewhere.

I walked down to the end of the line of cars, and just at that moment the gracious folks from the office pulled up. When we arrived at the office, we found that the interviews had been rescheduled for the next day, so, although we were late, we didn’t miss a thing. God had it all in hand! And I’m glad He had me in hand, coaching me on giving thanks when I didn’t feel like it.  Part 3 of  this story coming on Sunday.

“I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”mPsalm 34:1

We had just passed through the security check at the airport in Charlotte, NC. I got Barbara seated at a restaurant for a snack while I went and checked on our gate. As I was leaving, I glanced at my shirt pocket, and saw that my passport and boarding pass were not there where I always keep them! Wow, that was a potential glitch! Immediately the Spirit spoke: “This is a test! Will you trust me in this?”

“OK, Lord, I praise you for this new challenge, for the chance to give you glory by trusting you. You know what you are doing and I can rest in you no matter what the outcome!”

I told Barbara about it, and went right back to security where all the bins were searched, but no passport or boarding pass. “Well, Lord, this is another chance to give you glory in praising by faith. Thank you for your goodness in this, for however you are going to work it out.”

As I walked back to the restaurant, Barbara happily came towards me with my passport! It turns out that in the rush to get everything back in place after going through security, I had uncharacteristically stuck the passport and boarding pass into my backpack. “Thank you, Lord!” we both said.

Upon reflection, I realized this happened because I had been worried about getting through security quickly and was rushing, not being careful. Finding my passport was a great relief; however, there was more to come.

A continuation of yesterday’s post: the benefits of being a follower of Christ. No matter how much we suffer for His name, it is worth it to remain faithful to Jesus. Here are 20 more wonderful aspects of being a follower of Jesus.

1. We have purpose, Eph 2:10
2. We have a certain future Eph 2:6
3. We have peace with God, with ourselves and with others. Eph 2:14,17
4. We have become citizens of heaven Eph 2:19
5. We can pray and be heard Eph 3:14-16
6. We can enter the throne room of Heaven at any time.
7. Christ gives us power Eph 3:16
8. Christ dwells in us Eph 3:17
9. We are rooted in his love Eph 3:17b-19
10. We can know his love that is beyond understanding Eph 3:19
11. We can be filled w/ the fullness of God Eph 3:19b
12. We can put off the old self and put on the new Eph 4:21-24
13. He gives us clear direction Eph 4,5,6
14. He has given us the spiritual armor Eph 6:10-18
15. He gives us joy, peace and hope Romans 15:13
16. He has a plan for us Heb 12:1
17. We have Jesus as our shepherd
18. We have an intimate, continual relationship with our Loving Heavenly Father
19. We have the Holy Spirit living in us to guide n teach us
20. We can have unshakable Joy in Jesus
21. We have the privilege of prayer.

Picture: no matter how dark the night, dawn is always coming.