Don't Ask If You Don't Want!

A shower can be Spiritual Growth?  

Ephesians 4:14–16 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

As I reflect over the years I have been in the Philippines  – I continue to see all the ways that God has grown me. I remember in 1994, right after a Typhoon, we had no water in the house for 44 days in a row. It was so hot, as each day went by I realized that I was seeing an increase of inward anger as I dealt with some of the more frustrating issues of living here. Finally they fixed the pipes and the water returned to the house. For the next few days I began to meditate on what I was feeling and how I was NOT handling the situation so well. So I targeted that “work” of the flesh and began a three-day fast to increase my prayer life and confront this growing problem. After the first day I almost had regrets of asking God to help me gain self-control. You name it, it happened or went wrong! The worst of it was that night we once again lost all water to the house. Three days later, still without water to the house I returned home too late to go to a friend’s to grab a shower. It was - of course - the hottest day so far! :) I went out to the water meter and found a trickle of water dripping from it. Quickly I changed my clothes, turned all the lights off and snuck out to the water meter with an eight ounce cup in my hand. As I knelt on my knees in my front yard at 11:30 pm pouring cups of water over my head - I was in my swim suit - I began to see how great God was. 

He was answering my prayer. Sure it was frustrating, how else could He teach me self-control? No pain - No gain! I am lazy, I want it to come easy. Lord let me have the patience of Job, but give someone else the boils! Right! I do not have to deal with anger when everything is going my way. So God supplied the opportunity for me to get angry. Fun - No!  Worth it - That’s up to me! By the way - it took me 16 cups of water to get wet and the same to rinse off. I figure if I lose some weight and it ever happens again I can cut it down to 12. Even so - COME LORD JESUS!

Luke 14:28–30 “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?  “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,  saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Meditation Questions: How do you view a trial – opportunity for defeat, or opportunity for victory? If we go through a difficult testing – no matter what else we can learn one thing – what do you think that is? If you want my opinion – ask me in comment line