Sometimes God Sends a Spider

This morning I could not get myself to wake up.  I went through the whole process of getting ready for the day and was still dragging when it came time for my morning devotions.  Even when I had finished my Bible reading I still struggled to scrape together enough energy to get going.  As I sat there in my favorite chair, feeling that I didn't even have the energy to get up, I asked the Lord to give me the energy I needed.  I had just barely finished uttering those words when, in the corner of my eye, I saw a SPIDER!!  I was out of that chair in a flash, the Lord used that spider to give me the energy I was sure I didn't have.

This story is very humorous, yet it has caused me to think about the different ways God answers prayer.  Quite often the Lord answers our prayers in ways that we do not anticipate.  When I asked the Lord for energy this morning I was expecting Him to give me a blast of energy or to take away my tiredness.  Instead the Lord sent a spider, something I "fear" and strongly dislike.  This was most certainly not what I had had in mind; yet I found myself thanking Him for sending that spider.

I can think of numerous times throughout my life when I have asked the Lord for something and He gives it to me through a trial.  Trials are usually unpleasant and undesired.  Most of us given the choice would rather not experience trials, but the Lord uses those trials to teach us and to draw us closer unto Himself.  James 1:2-4 is probably one of the first passages of Scripture that pop into my mind when I think about trials:

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

It is incredibly hard to understand how one could find joy in something unpleasant.  If we keep our hearts fixed on Christ, remembering that "the testing of your faith produces endurance," it makes the trials easier to bear.  No matter how impossible the trial may seem it such a comfort to cling to verses like these:

The mind of man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.  ~  Proverbs 16:9

For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.  ~  Jeremiah 29:11

The Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.  ~  Deuteronomy 31:8 

No matter what we may face in life we can KNOW that the Lord Jesus Christ will be with us every step of the way.  The future does not surprise our Lord!  He has gone ahead of us and knows everything the future holds!  If you know the Lord as your Savior you can have this wonderful assurance (for more info please visit: A Free Gift).  We are told in Romans 8:38-39 that:

...neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And again in John 10:27-30:

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”

We are doubly secure, held in the hand of the Lord Jesus and the hand of the Father.  Absolutely nothing can take us out of our Saviors loving grasp.  Life isn't so scary when we remember that we are in the hands of the One who holds the future.  So next time you ask the Lord for something remember that He doesn't always answer in the way we would expect - sometimes, God sends a spider!

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.  ~  James 1:12