All dark clouds have a silver lining.

Last night we had a storm that caused really heavy rain. It had been raining all afternoon then about eight p.m. it began to rain really hard for over an hour. This hard steady soaking of rain after having already had so much rain that afternoon caused large amounts of water to accumulate very quickly.

To put it in perspective, my neighborhood never really floods but about 8:45 p.m. last night I looked out my front window. There were literal six plus inch waves in the street and someone’s car had stalled out in the middle of the intersection when they tried to drive through the water. The water in the intersection was knee deep even though only an hour before when I had arrived home there was no water accumulation. It was a very hard rain without let up for an hour and the water accumulated very quickly.

One of the results of this rain is that the roof of the convenience store in my neighborhood caved in. As I drove by this morning the store looked like it had been hit by a bomb with debris pilled up waist deep all over the inside of the store. I heard about the cave in from a neighbor last night and she had reported that the clerk on duty and the one customer that were in the store began hearing a “cracking” sound in the back of the store and ran out the door just in time to avoid being crushed by the ceiling and roof when they came down.

I began to think, “man am I glad I don’t own that store.” Actually, it is a Valero chain store but I have no idea who owns the store, probably some big corporation. But I started thinking what if you owned the store. Would you be down in the mouth and complaining? Think about it…odds are the owner has lost revenue until a time the store can be repaired, if it can be repaired at all. Immediately the owner lost the inventory, equipment, cash and so forth in the store. Or would you be glad that your employee and your customer got out in time and thankful that you had insurance on your business?

Thinking about this reminded me of a couple of verses from Scripture:

“Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” (Luke 17:12-18)

I wonder how often the Lord protects us or heals us or gives us guidance and we forget to circle back and praise the Lord for His blessings?

Another example along these lines; what if someone wronged us in some serious way but the Lord led them to repentance? I came across someone with this exact issue just the other day.

Would you like so many of us often do hold on to your bitterness and wanting your pound of flesh (so to speak) in retribution or would you simply praise the Lord for His restoration of your brother / sister in Christ?

How many have lost a job and they are so stressed about it that they forget to thank the Lord that He had provided them a savings account to see them through till another job could be found.

It seems that if we are not careful we quickly fall into the trap where our prayers are simply a list of wants and needs. Granted James did say that we “have not because we ask not” but at the same time our prayers shouldn’t be exclusively the equivalent of making a wish list for Santa Clause either. Our prayers if done Biblically should include things we need, or things we need wisdom and guidance about but they should also include praise and thanksgiving for that which the Lord has blessed us with.

Even in the worst of cases we can still praise the Lord that He loved us so much that He sent His son to die for us on a cross. We can also praise Him even in the worst of times that He is there with us every step of the way and will never leave us:

“Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:5-6)

So I would challenge you today. Whatever your circumstances in life might be, are you forgetting to praise the Lord and say thank you for what He has blessed you with instead of focusing on your problems?