Psalm 27:4-5 One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
The world these days is full of bad news, with the aftershocks of Covid, an ongoing war in Ukraine, tensions throughout the Middle East, and the natural disasters that continue to take place. It’s a time of trouble all right, and for us believers, it may sometimes be hard to believe – but it never is as bad as it seems. Let me illustrate with a joke I like to share with my messages.
Way out west (in America, of course), a cowboy is driving down a road, his dog riding in the back of his pickup truck, his faithful horse in the trailer behind. As he takes a curve on the highway he suddenly loses control of the vehicle and has a terrible accident.
Sometime later, a State Police officer comes on the scene. A great lover of animals, the officer’s attention is first drawn to the horse. Realizing the serious nature of its injuries, he draws his service revolver and puts the animal out of its misery. Then walking around the accident he finds the dog, also critically wounded, and whining miserably in pain. This grips his heart and he quickly ends the dog’s suffering as well.
Finally, the police officer locates the cowboy, who has suffered multiple fractures and can barely breathe. “Hey, are you okay?”, he says.
The cowboy takes one look at the smoking gun in the trooper’s hand and quickly replies, with unexpected energy, “Never felt better!”
We are pilgrims in this dangerous world, which will wound us at times so badly it will seem unbearable – yet we have this promise from God, “in the time of trouble He will hide me”. Our true life for us as believers is hidden in Him. So when the world approaches us with a smoking gun, ready to put us out of our misery, perhaps we can find a supernatural strength, and simply say, “I never felt better!”
I just read the devotion with the joke reference the cowboy crashing his truck and his reaction to the officer. I am a trooper with the State Police in Michigan. This reminded me of a crash I handled involving a deer. As I arrived the deer was in the roadway and suffering. Maybe 150 further up the roadway was the driver standing next to his car. Deer are stuborn about dying using handguns and I do not like having to shoot more than once to get the job done. So out came the shotgun and i put the deer down. I dragged the deer out of the roadway. I then looked up the road to the driver and yelled ” is everyone ok?” The driver heald his hands out like I was offering him the same service given the deer and yelled back “yea, I am just fine.”
A friend sent me the days word . It was so on time. Thank you for words of wisdom and restoration.
Found this searching online. Enjoyed the devotional reading.