There was this old woman who lived next door to this atheist man (who didn’t believe in God). Every morning this woman would shout praises to the Lord for blessing her and each day the neighbor would hear and curse. One particular morning the woman prayed to God that she was just about out of food and no means to get any but was thankful anyway. The man, upon hearing this, went down to the local grocery store and purchased 2 bags of food. When he got home, he placed the bags on the lady’s front porch and rang the doorbell and hid in the bushes. The woman opened the door and when she saw the bags she immediately went into a praise break. She thanked God for blessing her one more time! The man jumped out the bushes and hollered, “you old fool your God didn’t buy them groceries I did.” The lady continued on with her praise on the front porch. The man hollered again, you old fool didn’t I tell you that your God didn’t give you food, I did!” The women stopped and looked up towards the sky and said, “Lord, I thank you for showing up and blessing me one more time. But what I like about your blessing this time is you made the devil pay for it!”
Isn’t God good? This is a story that my Uncle Larry likes to tell and today it fits so perfectly with what God would have me to share today. See, so many times we go through things, bad things, which prepare us to handle the good things. I take that as the devil taking us through hell to get us to Heaven.
In Job 1:11-12 the devil asked God “But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.” God replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him.” Then Satan left the presence of God.”
You work for a woman who is the devil in a blue dress. Every time you do something right, she says something bad. Every time you try to take 2 steps to get ahead, she pushes you 3 steps back. Most of the ideas that she pass off as her own are yours but you never get the credit. Then this position becomes open and from the job duties, it seems to be a hard job that no one can keep. She asks you to apply for it, not because she thinks you’re capable of handling it but because she wants you to fail. You pray and fast about the job, apply for it and get it. You step into the position with your heels on, looking & smelling good, with the faith that God won’t let you fall. You flourish in the job and everyone who is anyone is noticing. Not only do you rise above the devilish woman but now you’re her boss. Isn’t it good news how God has a way of making the devil pay for what’s yours?
You’re in a relationship with the devil in a blue suit that is dragging you to hell and back, when he feels like it. For some it may be physical abuse and for others it can be mental. When he is having a bad day, you’re having a bad day. He feels like you need to be knocked around or that the walls in the house deserve a hole or two. He cheats because he can and he knows you aren’t going anywhere because he’s told you that no one else wants you. He says you aren’t this and won’t be that, all the while knocking your self-esteem lower. He spends every dime you got in the bank, purse, wallet and pocket and then leaves only to come back when the money does. But in the midst of it all, you’ve been praying, your faith never wavering and God has heard you! You finally left and after some time you’re dating again. You meet the man (that you’ve prayed for) and know that they are sent from God. You don’t experience any of the things you use too and if you argue it doesn’t last because you both are praying soldiers in God’s army and doing this thing the right way this time. Now you know what a real relationship is and you’re so thankful to God for sending you this man to share it with. See, the devil paid for your happiness, this time! He saw that he couldn’t break you with all the hell you’d been dealing with so what else could he do? It’s like to story of Job. After all he had been through he never gave up on God and when it was over with everything he lost was given back to him double. Is that good news?
You deal with complaining folk all day long, those who don’t realize the depth of their blessing giver or the blessing. Through it all you stay prayed up and you even pray for them. You keep wondering why they complain so much and yet you’re the one with cancer. You’ve come to realize that all of the strife you’re facing is just a test and if you hold on just a little while longer joy will come! Then you get the call you’ve been waiting for, the cancer is gone and you’re in remission! Then you say, “thank you God for blessing me with healing and for making the devil pay for it!” All of the chemotherapy treatments, surgery, radiation, sick days and losing your hair were preparing you for what you had already been ordained for.
The devil places people around you to deter your faith. You know that friend that never goes to church, never prays nor fast and don’t want to hear what you have to say about God but always seems to have everything they need. She stay in a big house, drives fancy cars, got money in the bank, bills paid and never sick. She tells you that she doesn’t pay any tithes and look what she has. You do know the devil blesses too? She wants you to know that you can have all these things too without praying but she never mentions the price she pays for them. Yea, she has all of the materialistic things but she goes to hell and back to get them. That car, after getting her head beat in by her boo. Those clothes, from the money she gets from all the men she has to sleep with and the black eye well it came free. She makes it all looks good when it’s covered up, but remove that makeup and the high dollar clothes and shoes to reveal the real girl and see if you still want it!
Sometimes, God has to take stuff from to see how strong your faith is. He allows the devil to attack you but never killing you to see if your faith moves like a windshield wiper, back & forth. When you go through the fire with your belief in God, you never get burned just a little smoke in your clothes and in your hair. It’s almost like a bet between God and Satan. God says to Satan, if I remove all their blessings and they deny me, they are yours but if they don’t you have to pay for all of their things to be returned, twice what they lost.
Just because you can see the greener grass through the hole in the fence, doesn’t mean it’s healthy because it could just be a green light shining on brown grass. Yea, you may be facing something hard in your life at this very moment but hold on! You may be without a job and a place of your own, got paid today and checking account still in the negative, robbing Peter to pay Paul and you may be sick; but hold on! After the rain stops and you close your umbrella to enjoy the sun, you can look towards heaven and tell God, “thank you Lord for deliverance and for making the devil pay for it!”
Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith. The suffering won’t last forever. It won’t be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ—eternal and glorious plans they are!—will have you put together and on your feet for good. He gets the last word; yes, he does. 1 Peter 5:8-9
Lakisha, the Author 