I need to share this with you. I was telling you about this bossy and vindictive elder in our church, and how he has been trying to reduce my ministry. Today, Sunday, he cut my ministry. The only option left was to sit in church and listen to his message. Out of the three messages in our church on Sunday, this elder took the main message. I didn’t want to sit and listen to his legalistic sermon. What to do?

I tried to go out on my Sunday ministry, by responding to long-pending invitations; but things didn’t work out. So to church I went. In the afternoon I was invited to a function. I was asked to give a devotional message. There was going to be distribution of quilts to some poor blind students. About 60 of them. I had to travel 40 kms outside the city.

When I was sitting in church I got a phone-call that I had left the pump on, and the water was overflowing from the overhead tank. So I had to rush back home and switch off the pump, but a lot of water had overflowed and gone to waste. I felt pretty bad.

Then I started worrying, thinking, Will I get time to take part in the Lord’s Table? But the Lord was gracious, and I took part in the bread and in the cup. Afterwards, I had to leave immediately for the function for blind students. So the ‘main message’ was left behind.

The function went off smoothly. It was held under the trees in a large compound of a Christian Retreat Centre. I was wondering what to speak on, and had already decided to speak on Mark 2; but God changed the topic in the last minute to Psalm 23. I spoke on the seven blessings available to the child of God in that psalm. At the end of the message I gave a call and six blind students stood up, desiring to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour. I took them into a room and asked them to pray with me. Instead of six, nine persons came in for gospel counseling. All of them prayed and asked the Lord Jesus Christ to come into their hearts. The Lord had anointed the message, though it was delivered in a ‘broken’ way, and the impact was significant.

God’s ways are past finding out. Often we wonder why we are going through such peculiar & painful circumstances, but the divine cloud always hides a silver lining. We are weak and full of faults; but if we are sincere in our desire to serve the Lord, He will satisfy the longing soul, Psalm 107.9. I had been longing to share what God had recently been doing in my life and what He had been teaching me newly through His word. The elder tried restricting my ministry, but God knew how to make the vindictiveness of a misguided man serve His heavenly purpose! What great goodness lies in store for those who love God and fear Him! Psalm 31.19-21.