January 31, 2023
Our Mistakes Can Be God’s Message
When I preach, I usually use a PowerPoint presentation to enhance the sermon. Recently I had prepared my sermon during the week and was looking it over one last time on a Sunday morning. I decided at the last minute to throw in one more PowerPoint slide. I wanted to show a picture of Satan controlling the strings of a puppet (That represented our lives when we are lost) so I searched the internet and found a picture.
I put the picture on the presentation and gave it to our audio-visual media person. As I went back and looked over everything I realized that the PowerPoint slide that I selected had something at the bottom that had nothing to do with my message. At the bottom of the slide, it said “Your battle isn’t with people, your battle is with Satan working through those people”. It was too late to change the slide so I just went with it and even told people when I preached to ignore the saying on the slide and focus on the image of Satan pulling the strings in our lives.
A lady came up to me on Tuesday and told me Satan had fought her hard about not coming to church that day but she came on anyway. She then told me how much that saying about the battle being with Satan and not people had blessed her. She had even written it down and looked at it several times. She said that now when she looked at a certain person who touched all of her trigger buttons, she realized who was really behind it. She had gotten her special message from a mistake that I made. WOW. Is God awesome or what?
Our God can use anything, even mistakes to accomplish His purpose and get His message delivered. I know many times as I look at a beautiful sky during a setting or rising sun I see God’s beauty and get blessed. When I hear birds singing I imagine them as God’s messengers singing a heavenly song just to me. Beautiful flowers and the leaves on trees when they are turning are things that God uses to get our attention and remind us of His blessings.
Looking back on the way that the events unfolded that Sunday morning I can see God’s perfect timing and purpose in my mistake. The Holy Spirit is the one who told me to add that slide at the last minute. I believe that He also allowed me to choose the “wrong” slide and not be able to correct it. God had a purpose that I knew nothing about and He was at work in ways that I didn’t know about. But He used my goof for His glory.
It took obedience on my part in doing what I was led to do (Even in doing it wrong) and obedience on the lady’s part to overcome Satan fighting her to stay at home and thus miss her blessing. So listen closely when the Holy Spirit is leading you and be obedient. Do what He tells you and know that He can use it for His glory and to bless others.
In love with Jesus – Gary