Daily Devotional for Monday August 16, 2004

Grateful and Humbled by God?s Grace and Mercy

(1 Chronicles 16:34; 2 Corinthians 12:9)

This is one of those few days a year that I use to share some personal feelings that I pray will be a blessing to you. I woke up very early Saturday morning, incredibly humbled and most grateful for the grace and mercy that God extended to Liveprayer, my wife and I, and all of those who live in Hillsborough County where the City of Tampa (Florida) is located, and Pinellas County where St. Petersburg is located, the home of Liveprayer.

As late as noon on Friday the 13, Hurricane Charley was on course for a direct hit on this area at about 2 p.m. The only question that remained was how much damage would be done. Then unexpectedly just an hour or so away, Charley took a turn to the east and hit the Port Charlotte area, approximately 120 miles to the south of Tampa, and cut a path up the center of the state before exiting late Friday night back out into the Atlantic Ocean heading north towards the Carolinas and Virginia.

Let me stop for a moment and ask everyone to pray for those who have lost loved ones from this monster storm, as well as pray for those peoples who have suffered the loss of property from Hurricane Charley. While I am most grateful to God for sparing this area, I am well aware that tens and thousands of people are hurting today due to the loss of life and property this storm caused. May God be with them in a special way, and may they find their strength and hope in their faith in Him at this time.

I want to personally thank you for praying for Liveprayer and me during this storm. Deep down, I know that your prayers were heard and that for reasons only God knows, He chose to spare us the devastation that looked to be a certainty. It became apparent early Thursday morning that this was not going to be the typical ?pass us by on the way to the Panhandle of Florida? hurricane we are used to. All of the complex computer models were clearly pointing to Hurricane Charley making a direct hit on the Tampa Bay area sometime Friday afternoon or early evening. There was still a chance that it would change direction after it passed over the western part of Cuba, but we would not get a better picture of its course until early Friday morning.

By noon Thursday, all of the Emergency Operation Centers were in full operation and they were issuing evacuation orders for the barrier islands on the Gulf Coast. At 1 p.m., I received a call from the UPN station we do our t.v. program on every night, letting me know they were under an evacuation order ( the station is 100 yards from Tampa Bay) and that we would not be able to do the program Thursday or Friday, and based on the amount of flood damage to the studio and equipment, possibly all of this week as well. By the way, this would be the first time in the 76 weeks we have been doing the t.v. program every Monday-Friday that I was not going to be on ?live.? I was very disappointed, since of all nights, that was the night people would really need the comfort only the Lord can provide.

By 3 p.m. on Thursday, I decided that other than my assistant, the staff would not have to come in on Friday so that they could be home with their families and take whatever precautions they needed to to be safe from the coming storm. I met throughout the afternoon with my techs about all of the different scenarios that we might be facing. So much would be out of our control since we are dependent on the electric company and the phone company. We secured our equipment, had backups of everything in several safe locations, but the real question was going to be the status of the several offices we operate from and the time our electricity and phone lines would be down. By 6 p.m., it was time to go home and pray with my wife about our home and the decision to stay or leave.

Nan and I spent several hours putting up the hurricane shutters on our home that covered all of our windows. We felt good that no matter how bad the winds were, the home would withstand it. However, our big decision was to stay or not since we were in an evacuation zone due to the potential flooding that was expected. My subdivision is in a flood plain and there was a very good chance we were going to end up with a foot of water in our house. We were not comfortable leaving as many people were doing, heading to Orlando or the center of the state. So we prayed and decided to make our final decision in the morning based on the most recent track of the storm.

Friday was an amazing day. The first thing I did was read the Devotional I had sent earlier last week about the unexpected surprises in life. Tell me God?s timing is not perfect! So much of that Devotional comforted me that morning, especially these words, ?THE KEY TO VICTORY IS TO NOT LET THE SURPRISES OF LIFE DISTRACT YOU, CAUSE YOU TO LOSE FOCUS FROM WHAT GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE!? I arrived at the office early in the morning knowing this might well be my last day in this office. I quickly put together the Devotional for Saturday and sent it 20 hours early to ensure it would get out. My assistant came in and we answered several hundred emails. By 10 a.m., I sent her home and spent some time alone with the Lord in my office.

I sat in my office and thanked the Lord for the nearly 5 years we have been in operation. I looked around and realized that things were going to be dramatically different in a few hours, and that it was a very good possibility this office would not survive the storm. I walked around the building, prayed over it, asking God to somehow spare this place. I knelt in my office and surrendered this ministry afresh to the Lord and told Him that whatever His plans were, I would obediently follow. As I left to go home, I was prepared that the building this ministry was birthed in would be destroyed in a few hours, but had a wonderful peace that God was in control.

I got home around 11 a.m., and my wife and I prayed together. While leaving seemed to be the safest and most prudent thing to do, somehow we were both getting the message from God to stay put. The confirmation was that several neighbors had made the decision to stay. They felt their homes were as safe as any place else even if there was major flooding. By noon, we felt confident with our decision to stay and had lunch on our patio as we watched the sky darken. We realized that in a few hours we would be dealing with lots of challenges, but were trusting that God would watch over us and protect us.

About 1 p.m. as we were relaxing, the news began to talk about the hurricane making a shift to the east and soon it became evident that it had changed course, no longer heading for the mouth of Tampa Bay, but would come on shore about a hundred miles or so south in the Port Charlotte area. When it became clear this was what was happening, Nan and I began thanking the Lord for His grace and mercy, and started praying in earnest for all of those people who were now going to have to face what we had already prepared ourselves for. I stayed in constant communication with our technical people throughout the afternoon and none of our operations went down even for a second. Since I didn?t have to do the t.v. program Friday night, I actually went to bed around 9 p.m. and slept for 7 hours!!!

I love you and care about you so much. I woke up Saturday morning, thanked God for sparing our home from considerable damage, drove to the office, and was never so glad to walk into that place. The great joy I felt, however, was muted by the concern for those people who have had to deal with the destruction of Charley in their lives. Even though God spared Liveprayer and my family, others throughout Florida and the east coast are still dealing with the effect this storm had on their life. My heart and prayers go out to them, and I pray they will find their strength in the Lord as He helps them to put the pieces of their lives back together.

I am praying for you today. As much as anything, I am grateful that Liveprayer was not interrupted. How God uses this ministry every day through the Daily Devotional, the 40,000+ prayer requests we respond to, the t.v. program on secular television to touch and impact lives worldwide is incredible. My greatest concern was not being here for people in their time of need. You are so special to me, and being available to help you through the storms of life is what God has called me to do.

My word for you today is simply this. The Bible tells us tomorrow is not promised to any of us. We have to make the most of each and every day. We never know what tomorrow will bring. So make the most of today, be faithful to the Lord, and never forget that no matter what, HE IS STILL ON HIS THRONE AND HIS GRACE AND MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER!!!