Ruin Satan’s Day
Has Satan ever tried to ruin your day? Well let me tell you about when I ruined his day. Years ago, I was driving in the middle of the night across country to see my sister and see about a job. I had just quit a job that was not working out and had no idea what the future held. I had no job, no money, no future, as far as I could see, and then, to make matters worse, I looked in my rear view mirror and see lights flashing! Just what I needed— a speeding ticket while I was broke without a job! I honestly had no idea I was speeding enough to warrant a ticket, but the officer was not the least bit sympathetic.
Needles to say I was very frustrated. I was already feeling down before I got the ticket. Now I was in despair and gloom, as I asked God how He was going to take care of this ticket for me, since He knew I had no money when He allowed this to happen. (Never mind the fact that it was my foot and not His on the gas pedal!)
As I was complaining to God about the situation He had just placed me in and asking Him in despair how in the world He was going to provide the money for the ticket, I suddenly realized the obvious: God does not have to provide for this ticket. God does not have to do anything for me! God does not owe me anything! Then it hit me what I was doing. After He created me and died for me, I was withholding my praise from Jesus until He took care of this ticket for me. All at once it dawned on me, if God never provided the money for this ticket and stopped giving me any more blessings from this day forward, He still had already given me way more than I deserve! As a matter of fact, Calvary alone warrants all of my thankfulness, praise and devotion, without God ever giving me anything else.
There in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, I changed my attitude from gloom and despair to joy and praise. I decided not to ask God to help me pay for the ticket, but instead just thank Him and praise Him for everything else He has already done for me. I then remembered reading a passage from inspiration about how Satan cannot stand to be in our presence when we praise God, “When the evil one begins to settle his gloom about you, sing praise to God. … strike up a song about the matchless charms of the Son of God, and I tell you, when you touch this strain, Satan will leave you. You can drive out the enemy with his gloom; . . . and you can see, oh, so much clearer, the love and compassion of your heavenly Father. (Ellen White, Heavenly Places, p 95.)
Considering the above passage, I thought to myself, “Hey, if Satan is going to try to ruin my day by giving me this ticket (Remember it’s never my fault when I get a ticket), then I am going to ruin his day by singing praises to my God. I started singing praises at the top of my lungs. I was traveling in the middle of the night hundreds of miles away from my friends or family, but I felt the presence of angels as they sang with me. I wasn’t worried about the ticket any more. I was worried about making sure God knew I appreciated His sacrifice at Calvary. By the way, God did take care of the ticket for me. My sister also happens to be an angel. But even more impressive were the two lessons I learned that night:
One: God owes me nothing and I owe Him everything. After Calvary if He never gave me another gift, I still have cause to praise him for the rest of my life!
Two: If Satan tries to ruin your day, instead of murmuring and complaining, start singing songs of praise and ruin his day instead!
(2)
awesome
Praise God, He can turn anything around!*:D Let's keep thanking Him, and praising Him!
Thank you William for your post. I agree, there certainly are times when we need to get our priorities straightened out and straighten up as far as our attitude toward God is concerned. When we do that then we can ruin Satan's day not just in praise but also in saving a soul or two for Christ.
God never leaves us (Deut 31:6-8; Josh 1:5; Isa 49:15-16) - we are always the ones that choose to leave Him and usually when that happens we tend to run. But just in case we think it is the other way around perhaps we should consider all the stupid things His chosen ones have done in the Bible including Samson, David and Bathsheba, Jephthah, Johah, Peter and so many more who will be in the Kingdom in spite of their lack of faith. Even with a mighty oak like Elijah who feared Jezebel more than he did God yet God never left him in his terror (1 Kings 19).
"A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench" (Isa 42:3 NKJV). The physician always heals and the good shepherd never abandons the flock but always leads, always protects and comforts whether we realize it or not.
Praise God! for all his daily blessings which flow every second, every minute of the day. Let us keep on praising and thanking HIM for HE is an awesome GOD whom we serve. God Bless
Thank you for sharing this valuable lesson with us.
Thank you very much for sharing this. Yes God has done so much for us yet demands nothing but our love back to Him. This is very inspiring and from now on I will remember this. Tyler's comment is very goodnakso. Thank you. God bless all of us
Satan is a looser.
Thank you so much William after I read the passage my face was all smiling. You have made my day. Sometimes we really forget the things God has done for us and make our focus to be on worries.
Hello William,
You always deliver, God bless you and yes, like Nonkulueko, your story brought a broad smile to my weary face. Thank you. I shall try to sing at the top of my lungs when feeling sorry for myself and thinking the Lord owes me because of this and that....well if He doesn't do another single thing to help me out of my own self-created dilemmas, I will sing His praises nonetheless for He took care of me and mine and us all by laying down His life to provide a way out of this life to one in eternity with Him in Heaven along with my family and friends! Praise the Lord and thank you for your timely story of warmth and cheerfulness!
The message of this story was timely for me.
I feel encouraged that there is a way out of my discouragement at the moment. I've printed off that quote from heavenly places and will be putting that somewhere visible on my wall! Thank you 
Thank you very much for sharing this! Exactly what I needed! God deserves our praise ALWAYS! PRAISE GOD!
Good article. Very inspiring. Thank you.
A great big Amen! Thank you
I will never forget the story of a missionary who almost had his day ruined by Satan. A native family called him over under the veranda of the central village thatched roof hut. The cheifs son was possessed, they wanted the demons cast out of their son. The family had recently given their hearts to Christ themselves. They had prayed, but you know, so did the disciples just before Christ returned from his 40 day prayer and fasting. The missionary was uneasy about this, but said okay, as he believed in the power of God over Satan. He prayed, and prayed in Jesus name adoring God, confesing to God, with thanksgiving, and then with supplication (asking for God to remove the devil from this young man in Jesus name). Nothing happened, the second time nothing happened. By this time he was desperate. The third time he revealed to God how desperate he was, and how totally dependent on Him he had become. It was then that the demon left the young man. As you can imagine there was a difference in the missionary's heart after that as well as the whole village.
I am so glad that you all have been encouraged today, by an experience I had so long ago. See, I was worried about nothing the whole time. God turned it into a blessing on many levels.
Thank you William for this post. God is getting many more praises! Praise God for He will have the last word! Thank you Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit. All glory and power belong to You, praise God.
Dear William, your post made my day! God's grace is sufficient for us. God bless you.
Quite apropos! Thanks
William, God Bless you and thank you for standing up and being counted. Many times we know what God has done and is still doing in our lives but we hardly shout from the mountain tops! Am truelly blessed.
Thank you so much for this post. I stumbled on it looking for this weeks lesson and right now my husband would definately appreciate it as I have. It is obviously not an easy thing to do, praise God while in despair but that is why it is the right thing, right? I mean, Paul and Silas weren't exactly making merry at the Kings table when visited by anangel, were they? Definately food for thought and push for action.
Ta very much and God bless.
His grace is sufficient.
God has a meaning in our lives; thank you for posting such a beautiful item.
I m very grateful to this missionary for this HOLY SPIRIT leading testmony. May god continue to bless your work. In this contemporary world, sometimes, we as Seventh-day Adventists are tempted to think and behave like the pentecostal fellows who want instant miracle. When the miracle does not happen, they claim that the other party did not believe but this missionary showed us that ANSWERS TO PRAYER or any MIRACLE IS DONE OR MUST BE ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD AND NOT OUR PERSONAL EMOTION OR ELSE we become like the prophets of baal and thereby undermine the sacredness and the saving grace of God.
Thanks a lot William. I was down for three days, and now I know what to do, thanks
Right on time. A reminder I needed just now. Thanks
Thanks for your excellent testimony!
God bless you.
Awesome, with JESUS in the vessel you can smile at the storm. Thanks for reminding us.
This testimony is beautiful. My favorite hymn when I'm down is "All The way my saviour leads me." I remember years ago I was at home on Saturday, doing some house cleaning and singing this song. I then went to put some stuff on the trash heap and still singing as I got under the trees a limb from the coconut tree fell off and missed me by mere inches. I had to stop and give Him thanks and praise right there under the trees. Until this day over 30yrs later I tremble when I remember His mercies towards me.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!
I was feeling very depress when I stumbled on your article. My sister-in-law is in the hospital suffering from a heart condition. My brother is to be hospitalized for surgery too, my husband is struggling with his business, he has not earned a cent in four months just to mention a few. But after reading your article all of this is a small thing for God. For just now I have found my song of praise for today "His Eye is on the Sparrow and I Know He watches me." I just feel Satan running. Praise God, Halleluiah. My God is awesome. He just provided you to remind me. Thank you.
Very inspirational & uplifting!!!! Thank you for sharing!
Powerful! Thank you for sharing your testimony. I have been greatly blessed.
Thank you so much for this inspiration! This is why the Angels only say " Holy, Holy, Holy" because they can't begin to describe the goodness of the Lord, you have really touched my heart. Once our pastor said if you are driving and you listen to circular music demons fill your car! God has made life very simple and rewarding for us..... just sing feel good hormones flood your system your blood pressure goes down, no precipitation of wrinkles, God is Perfect.
Here lies the secret to keep joy and happiness in the heart even when we pass through the most difficult moments. When the flight of the storm darken your blue sky, instead of lowering the head, count the favors of God. God always takes care of His children!
Thanks William for the inspirational tips.
God will never force us to praise him. For He has already set us free and free to make our own choices whether to freely express our gratitudes towards him in praises (prayers and singing)for Who/What He is or to revert to satan's compelling approaches towards God amidst our earthly challenges.
Murmuring and complaining is satan's way right from the begining and he wants us to continue to be slaves by upholding those approaches. We need not do anything extraordinary to free ourselves from satan's bondage but need to shift our mind-set from being slaves-to-sin to a mind-set of a set-free who has all the freedom to choose and use their God-given instinct to shun the devil.
Praise God always for he has created us different from all other creations. He has instilled in humans the ability to differentiate between "GOOD" and "EVIL" and for that, we have the power to choose to do right or to do wrong.
Our choice to do GOOD will come from nothing other than from us realizing God's purpose for us before creation.
Thanks...