When Lightening Strikes, Praise the Lord!

A few months after Dan and I bought the house we live in now, lightening struck it. It was a Sunday night. We’d been at church, and Pastor Arthur had just finished preaching a message on praising the Lord through all things even if it wasn’t a time you felt like it. We came home. There was two inches of water in out master bathroom. The pipes had burst. Water is coming from somewhere in a wall. You could see up the mirror where the lightening struck. It left a burnt trail. I went to use the phone and the phone was dead. The lightening had literally burst out the phone line. Our TV was affected, our washer shorted out, and the stove fried. In that moment when we looked at the destruction to be real honest I wanted to cry. We didn’t have the extra cash to fix everything that needed fixed. Fear like a vicious snake tried to creep in the scene. As I watched water spilling out of my bathroom suddenly I felt the Holy Spirit reminded me of what Pastor had preached on. I had a choice I could choose to feel sorry for myself. Or choose to praise the Lord. As a family Dan, my oldest daughter, and I chose to Praise the Lord that He was good, and somehow something good would come from all of this.

Here are just a few scriptures about praising the Lord : Psalm 7:17 “I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.” Psalm 18:3 says, “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.” Psalm 28:7 says, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. Psalm 106:1 says, “Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 150:6 “Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.”


You’ll notice no where in the entire Bible does it say Praise God only when you feel like it and everything is going swell. You have to trust God no matter what is going on around you. That somehow through all the mess He has a way to make something good out of it. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” You MUST choose to trust God despite what you can see. Praise Him in your circumstance! No matter what is going on around you. Praise Him for who He is! Praise Him for what He’s done for you in the past! Praise Him for where you know He’s taking you in the future! Praise Him because there is breath in your lungs! Praise Him because you woke up this morning! Praise Him!

So did we get our good thing in all the mess. Yes, eventually we did. It turned into a huge insurance claim. At one point there was a hole cut out of my house, and the entire house had to get repiped. Now that I’m years after the fact it’s easier to laugh about it. Basically I ended up getting to remodel a bathroom I always wanted to remodel anyway. Our circumstance turned out to be a good thing. I’m grateful that we chose to praise Him. So I leave you all today with this reminder. When lightening strikes in your life…choose to praise Him!

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