Last Sunday we had our 24th anniversary at church. It was a wonderful timer of fellowship, praise, and worship of God with sister-churches. The Lord blessed in an incredible way and thankfully everything went smoothly.
That is until the service was over……
We had ordered snack boxes as a refreshment for each of the attendees, and though it would have been close, everyone would have gotten a box. So I was surprised when that night and the next day I spoke with many people who attended but didn’t get a box! Eventually we discovered many local individuals who were coming back from a funeral sadly took a snack box for themselves so that many who actually attended didn’t get one! There were people to make sure they were distributed properly, but some of the boxes were taken upstairs, and that’s when many individuals from the funeral took one.
My first response was anger (rightfully so) because the people who took didn’t even attend the service.
My second response was shame…..
and that was a sin
Things will almost always go wrong in life no matter how hard we plan. The important thing is to learn from our mistakes. For instance, at next years anniversary we will order extra boxes, and I will personally make sure the right people get one!! Getting better after mistakes is a Godly response, shame is a selfish one that comes from Satan.
The Devil doesn’t want us to rejoice in what God has done. So, he focuses our mind on the ONE THING that went wrong instead of the MANY THINGS that went right!
This focus not only robs our joyful praise to God, but it keeps us from serving the Lord in the future. Satan would say something like, “well remember last time when you made such a huge mistake with those snack boxes! Just don’t try to have a big anniversary service next year, something like that will happen again.”
Because the voice of Satan can be very convincing in that moment, I had to control my emotions, and focus on what went right.
- Believers from five different churches together worshipped what God had done in Tabernacle Baptist Church
- The members of Tabernacle boldly shared what God had done in their lives through the church
- The Gospel was proclaimed
- And God was glorified
For a few moments Monday morning as I learned about what had happened my emotions went from frustration to shame. But the next moment I remembered God got the glory even if the snack boxes were taken! Yesterday morning the Lord allowed me to personally apologize to friends from other churches for what had happened (of course they were understanding).
but our conversation wasn’t about the lost snack boxes.
It was about the glorious things God has done.
Johnhwilburn.com 
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