Me: That window is some kinda pretty.
Prodigal: I like it too.
Me: The colors remind me of the beauty around us, even if we are inside.
Prodigal: I agree
Has the enemy come and swept away the trophies of remembrance of God’s good hand on you? Focus on what has been achieved, not on what has not. I read this is the book The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart by Charles Swindoll.
It was just a sentence and, not a paragraph. There was no long explanation or commentary on what the author was thinking. Because it was so simple and alone, it made me think.
We forget. We forget names, places, address, birthdays and phone numbers. We forget items, lists and, emails. We forget people and memories. We forget God and, what He has done.
I am convinced that anybody who truly lives for Christ will be challenged. The challenge will be living a life that remembers God’s trophies instead of what was not done. Working for Christ does not mean that perfect outcomes will display themselves in this world. Our plans and hopes sometimes do not happen, even with prayer and a pure heart.
We have prayed and desperately wanted cancer to go away, for addictions to be healed for deaths to be reversed. We have wanted the ability to have relationships restored and people accept Jesus. We have longed for the bill to be paid with hard work instead of credit this month. We pray for those that are lost for those, that have forgotten God. We pray for those who are confused by the world’s message and, those that live a lie from the enemy. Will these prayers all be answered? God will not give us all that we pray for in the way that we pray it. People will still die and some will never know Christ.
In the quiet moments when we see the enemy snatch people away. We retreat and are alone with God, we then question. We ask Why? We ask why to God, and to others. Time will pass and, sometimes we look back and can understand the reason why. Sometimes we will never get an answer and have no idea why?
I do not have all the answers. I may not even have an answer for you right now. I do know that God has allowed good in your life. God has created good from your life. There are trophies of remembrance from months and years past, that are a joy to the Lord and a joy to you. Do not let the enemy dim the light of the works that were done in God’s name through His spirit. Do not let the enemy take that joy from your heart that you felt when God’s work was accomplished.
The Lord is still working all around us. The Lord still has many trophies ahead. The enemy does have trophies also, but the Lord will end up with more.
At this moment the enemy has achieved his purpose in taking someone away from God. We do not focus on that right now, because their are many others who the spirit is preparing to accept Jesus and also grow in the Lord. You are a fisher of men and God is asking you to lower your net. Obedience is calling and there is work to do. It’s time to move forward.
Revelation 5:3
And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
