God Brings Them To Us
I often have to giggle at the goodness of God. I went with my wife and my daughters to get their school supplies recently. I have to be transparent and say shopping for school supplies isn’t one of my favorite things to do in life. But I wanted to be with my family regardless and I also wanted to make myself available to God should He have a kingdom appointment for us. The girls found all of the things they needed, so we headed towards a checkout line. As we began to unload our stuff onto the conveyor belt, I couldn’t help but look at all the people who were coming and going without any idea about the wonders of God or His Kingdom. Our clerk was solely focused on sliding each item across the scanner and place the goods into grocery bags.
We loaded our cart back up with all the bagged goods and got ready to walk from the counter to our car. As I turned to leave the checkout stand, I noticed an older lady walking past us. She was wearing a full leg cast (plastic) and clearly was wincing as she walked. She and I caught each others eye and we both smiled. I said to her, “You look like you are in a lot of pain.” She apparently had a deep desire to talk with another human being as she immediately stopped walking and pushed her cart over to ours. “Yes, I broke my leg and it hurts!” She looked like she also had other things going on with her health but the Lord didn’t prompt me to pray for her as I do for others. It might be she wouldn’t have received any prayer, I don’t know for sure.
We began to walk with her towards the door and I said, “I have a question for you… do you read much?” She looked up at me and said, “Oh, I read everything I can get my hand on. I am like a sponge.” Smiling at her I said, “I just published a book and wonder if you would read it if I gave you a copy?” She instantly said she would. So I told her I would go out and grab a copy for her as I had a few in the car. I asked if she would wait for me and she said she would. In fact, she even pushed her cart out of the aisle so others could get past her as she waited for me to come back.
I was parked right in front of the store so it didn’t take long for me to return with her copy of my book. As I got closer to her, she yelled, “Now is this book some end time prophetic thing or something like that?” The devil loves to play with our minds. He was already working her over to try to get her to turn from reading it. I wasn’t surprised at all by her question.
“No, I am a Pastor and I have written a book just for you. It is going to answer a lot of question as to why you are struggling in life.” Putting her hand on my arm, she said, “I lost my sister last month, but before she died, she said to me, ‘I am praying God will give you a happy life after I am gone.” I told her if she will practice what I teach in my book, she would have a life filled with joy and happiness would come to her. She grabbed me and gave me a huge hug and thanked me for helping her. She was clearly grateful.
There is an interesting verse in the Bible dealing with broken bones. Let me show you what it says…
Psalm 34:19-20 (NKJV)
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken.
Isn’t that an amazing scripture. God doesn’t allow any bones to be broken in those who walk in righteousness. Over the years, I have had two broken bones. One was a wrist and the other was my ankle. At the time of those breaks, I was surely not walking in righteousness. I was outside of the covering of God because of blatant sin. So is this lady. But she was given a tool to receive the instruction she needs, so that she can begin to walk in righteousness with God.
I have found the more I minister to people in the marketplace, I don’t have to look for them any longer. They are brought right to me. God is amazing isn’t He?
May this testimony go out in the spirit of prophecy.
Pastor Jeff
