Someone Is Watching
By him actions are weighed. – 1 Samuel 2:3
When I was a boy, our family lived in Iowa. One time, my brother and I wanted to go to the creek in the early spring
while the ice was breaking up. It was somewhat risky, so our father told us we could not go. We accepted his decision outwardly, but inwardly we were
not happy, and we decided to take out our frustration on a sack of black walnuts that had been drying on the basement floor. Things were going quite
well until I reached into the sack and my brother’s hammer came down on my hand. Today, after forty-five years, I still have a unique fingerprint on
my right forefinger reminding me of the day I did not accept my father’s decision. Someone may question my characterization of the incident, but I
simply walked up to my bedroom and accepted it as a lesson painfully learned. My actions had been weighed, and I had received a just recompense for
my deeds!
When I was a little bit older, my mother became deathly ill. While I was not a Christian at the time, I knew that God could answer prayer, so in the front
seat of my car, I put my head down and prayed a silent prayer. What a better response to have in a troubling situation! God touched my mother immediately.
Again, I learned that God weighs our actions, even when we reach out to him in a moment of silent prayer.
The way we choose to respond to situations that come our way will determine their outcomes. When troubles come, do we pray or do we “stomp our foot”? Pouting
or becoming angry will not improve our situation, but reaching out to God can make all the difference. He has promised to help those in need, and when
we come according to His Word God will not turn us away.
Let’s make prayer our response to trials that arise. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in the sight of the Lord,
who is our strength and our Redeemer.