God’s Slam Dunk

There are many times when I sit down at the computer to type out words for you to read the following morning that I don’t have any idea what I am going to write. There are times when I know exactly what I am going to write and have written the entire post in my mind before I ever sit in front of a computer. There are times when I can sit in front of the computer and write several days worth of posts at a time. And then there was last Wednesday night.

As I sat in my chair on this particular night I pondered in my mind what I wanted to write. I thought about it for quite a while and I could not come up with anything that I really felt led to say. At first, I thought I was burned out on computing since I had spent much of the day exploring the nuances of the Apple’s new Mountain Lion OS. Maybe I was just tired and needed some rest, after all these past 10 days have been difficult.

As I sat and started to question my ability to come up with anything new, my thoughts kept returning to one thing; Psalm 121. Even though this is my favorite Psalm and one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible, I felt like that would be selling myself short, so I continued to ponder the question. I paused my thoughts for a moment and prayed that God would give me some guidance, an idea that would affect someone in a positive way and bring glory and honor to Him.

Psalm 121. Psalm 121. Psalm 121.

This was the only thing that I could think about. So I finally gave in and typed Psalm 121 and scheduled it to post last Thursday. I immediately knew which picture I wanted to use to go along with this post, it is the same one that I use for my Twitter background for @Ask4Prayer, our prayer chain. I took this picture of the Blue Ridge Mountains many years ago and it just always reminded me of this passage of Scripture. And yes I have used this same graphic today for reason’s that will become apparent in a couple of minutes.

When I finished I thought, “Wow that was too easy”. But it is also cheating, people who want to read the Bible usually go to other Bible websites. They don’t come here looking for a Scripture verse. That is not what we are about here. But it was late and I told myself “that’s what God is leading you to write.” I wasn’t convincing myself but I was tired so I went to bed anyway.

The following day, Thursday, turned out to be an extremely stressful day for myself and my family. First thing that morning I received a call letting me know that they were releasing my mother in law from the hospital. This was great news and we are thankful for the care she has received and will continue to receive, but I knew she would be glad to get home. My wife informed me that they were going to have to give her a shot twice a day and that she would be going to the drug store later to pick up all of the medicines needed.

As bright as the future seemed at that moment, it didn’t take long for our joy and thankfulness to crash down around us. I received another call from my wife informing me that she had received a phone call from the pharmacist and that the co-pay on the shot we needed to purchase was $2,300.00. That’s right, twenty-three hundred dollars! God has blessed us with riches beyond my wildest expectations, but He has not blessed us with enough disposable income to sustain a $2,300.00 per month drug. My wife tried to fight back the tears as I told her to call the doctor and see what could be worked out. I told her not to worry that we would figure something out.

As I ambled about work trying to figure out what we were going to do, all I could think about was to pray.   I prayed that God would help us find a way to work this out. I prayed that he would guide us and give us the strength to get through this. I prayed for what I thought would be a miracle, but as it turns out, such things really aren’t that big of a deal for God.

As the day drug on, I kept thinking about that blog post that went live earlier that morning. Psalm 121. I went to this website and stared at the words on the screen.

I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

All day I thought about these words, I kept repeating these words in my mind over and over.  ”My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

Later in the afternoon the phone rang, when I looked at the caller id, I quickly said to myself “I lift up my eyes to the hills.”  On the other end was my son telling me that he had just gotten a phone call from the hospital. My mother in law’s doctor had called the hospital and arranged for them to provide her with the medication that she needed at no cost to her. Needless to say, we were almost giddy with excitement over these developments.

I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

In an instant God had just answered all of my prayers from the last couple of days in fell swoop.

• He led me  to write on this Scripture for my blog post for Thursday.
• He used this blog post to help someone. I didn’t realize that it would be me that needed the help, but I am grateful.
• He used this post to glorify and honor Him.
• He allowed us to obtain the medication that my mother in law needed.
• He gave me the strength with this one phone call to realize that there is nothing that He can not accomplish.
• He answered my prayers beyond my wildest expectations.

How awesome is that! I asked God for an assist, to block for me so I could take a shot. He responded with his own slam dunk!  He answered my prayers in a powerful emphatic way. “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” You would think that I would not be surprised by now, but I continue to be awed by His work in my life.

Don’t underestimate what God can do in your life. The next time you need an assist, you might just get a SLAM DUNK!  All you have to do is look to the hills and ask.

How is God working in your life today?

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