Ten minutes…
I have been waiting in the grocery checkout line ten minutes…
I am losing patience.
What is taking that person so long to check out?
I look ahead to see…
So does everybody else…
A few people sigh.
There’s even a moan or two…
Finally, it is my turn.
I will be efficient.
There will be no neck craning, no deep sighing over my check out process.
I hand my debit card to the clerk.
She swipes.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “Your card is not authorized.”
People behind me moan.
My wife is with me….
Her card works. But my good mood is gone.
In the parking lot, we load the groceries into the car.
My wife backs out of the parking space.
Someone else is backing out at the same time.
We collide.
No damage to our car…
Is that a small scratch on her car?
“Police!” she shouts. “We need the police!”
“What a terrible day,” I say to my wife.
“Satan’s got it in for us! “
Then I realize just how wrong that statement is…
Everything that happened is probably just coincidence.
But if we let him, Satan will use even coincidence to divert our minds from God…
To divert our minds from His greatness…
Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor… 1 Chronicles 29:11
To divert our minds from His grace…
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
From His goodness
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1
So we surrender our will to God…
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7
And ask for His strength to focus our hearts and our minds…
… whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
For when we focus on whatever is true and pure and noble and good we see God…
Because…
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights… James 1:17
