Life Lessons from a Deposit Box

Do you ever have that experience when you decide to memorize a new verse of Scripture, then - almost immediately - the Lord graces you with opportunities to put His Truth into practice? Well...I sure did yesterday:

"Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord; He is God in heaven above and on the earth below: there is no other." ~ Deuteronomy 4:39 ~

This verse (which I committed to memory just late last week) the Lord has been employing to make SUCH an impression upon my life lately. He is teaching me to fear Him above all else, and truly live out the reality that Man can do nothing to me. The ONLY person that God gives us permission to fear is Himself...PERIOD. Anything else is just sin.

So yesterday, I called my local bank to make sure that they had received the deposit I had made to them the evening before. Well, it came as a bit of a surprise when they informed me that they had no record of it in their computer. So I phone the branch at which I dropped off my only check for the next few weeks (I'm down to only one job, right now), to see if - perhaps - the envelope (covered w/ all my info: social security number, checking account number, etc.) was lying around somewhere. The cordial gentleman on the other end of the line informed me that it was not, and then proceeded to ask me if I placed my money in the correct "drop box."

This caused a momentary lump in my throat. What do you MEAN the correct box?

The box I put my check in was NOT the appropriate box for making deposits. It was, in fact, intended for other bank usage, specifically of the kind that is responsible for transferring money to other locations (not necessarily in Louisville).

I began to run through the list of transactions I had already made that day, with a waning amount of money in my checking, and soon it seemed as if all the potential disasters of what might have happened to my deposit began to crash in around my consciousness. Not only that, but what about identity theft? I had practically INVITED someone into my financial resources with the amount of personal info listed on the front of that envelope (something I will NEVER do again...).



BUT...it was at this point that the Lord extended His Hand of mercy and comfort, and reminded me of His Words: "Know therefore today (Jen), and take it to your heart (Jen), that the Lord; He is God in heaven above and on the earth below: there is no other" (inserts added by me). This was the place at which the Scriptures got PERSONAL, and became my reality...not just recitation. :)

Ultimately (as w/ all things), this circumstance - too - is under God's divine influence. I may not have control, I may have made a simple mistake...BUT God. The Truth of the matter is that it is in He and He alone that we find real security and peace. The test: do we choose to believe Him, and live what we tells us with all our mind and heart.

Thus, after praying in faith with my precious roommate, Lisa, our God filled me with a confident rest; knowing that He was overseeing all things, and no matter what happened: this incident is small, because He is SO BIG.

Not one hour later, I received a phone call from a kind lady from the bank. Apparently, the box in which I placed my money had not been collected from by the serviceman because it had been jammed shut. An employee had accidentally dropped the box's key in the box itself - jamming it tightly shut. A specialist had to be called to pry open the dysfuntional collection box: they found the offending key...and my pitiful envelope covered in identification. :)

Do we serve an AWESOME God or what?



Moral of the story: "There's nothing to fear but God Himself."

Blessings, friends!