Devotional – Making Prayer Your First Resort

 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1 (NIV))

The
message from the bank was bad. It alerted me to a transaction on my
account a few minutes prior. I immediately became concerned because I had no
knowledge of the said transaction. How did this happen? Has my account been
compromised? A million thoughts began to swirl through my mind. I sent an email
to the bank to inform them that I had not done the transaction. The email
bounced. I called the customer service lines, not one, not two, but three times.
I was put on hold. There were no available customer service agents to address
my concern. I started to get agitated. But then I remembered that I could pray and began to do so..

A
second alert came from the bank. Another withdrawal from my account. No, this
could not be happening! Then the Holy Spirit directed me to alert members of my Community WhatsApp group from my church and to ask them to agree with me in prayer that the
situation be rectified.

Within
two minutes I had a response from a member of the group urging me not to
panic. She had had a similar experience two days before and was also very
concerned about the situation. She was reassured by the bank officials that a
glitch in the banking system had resulted in a number of customers receiving
similar notifications. There was no need to worry.

What
a relief! There was no suspicious activity on my account. As I read
the message and looked back at the transactions,  I suddenly remembered that the transactions in question had taken
place a week before. Under normal circumstances, alerts for those transactions
would have been issued right away, however, the glitch in the system caused
them to be sent out over a week later, giving the impression that they had just
taken place.  

As
I reflected on the situation, I realized that my loving Heavenly Father saw
ahead of time what was going to happen. When I got the news my instinct was to
be worried and anxious. I was beginning to panic but he said “pray”. And I am
so glad I heeded his voice. Had I resorted to fear, worry and anxiety I would
have wasted precious time being preoccupied with something that was not even a
reality. I had begun to have thoughts of my account being totally wiped out and
me not having money to spend. I began to picture the worst-case scenario and it
was a dismal thought. But God saw it fit to divinely orchestrate an answer to
my dilemma. The fact that my church sister had had the same experience two days
before, was in the same group as me, and was available at the right time to see
my Macedonia cry for help and respond right away was no coincidence. God was on
the case and he came through in record time. He knew that I would have had
difficulty contacting the bank, which in itself would have caused greater
anxiety. So, in His omniscience, He made a way. What a God!

I
thank God that He is my help when I face trouble. I thank him that I can turn
to Him when I get bad news. I thank Him for guiding me, for speaking to me in
the situation and I am thankful that I was obedient to His voice. That act of
obedience saved me from undue stress and worry. This whole experience has
strengthened my faith and has taught me to lean on God more. It has reinforced
the fact that in times of trouble, our first resort should always be to pray,
instead of worrying. That should become our modus operandi. The invitation is
extended to us in Psalm 55: 22, one that we should never refuse –  Cast your cares on the Lord and he will
sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.

This
is a valuable lesson to me and it should be to you too. Before anything or
anyone else, look to God, our refuge and strength who is standing by to help us
in our time of trouble.

Prayer:

Father, thank you that we can run to you in our times of distress. Thank you that
you are our way maker who makes a way where there seems to be no way. Thank you
that you are our present help in times of trouble and invite us to look to you first in every
situation that we face, whether big or small. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.