“I love you, Lord! You answered my prayers. You paid attention to me, and so I will pray to you as long as I live.” (Psalm 116:1-2 Contemporary English Version)
I’m not really going to write about the Academy Award winning cartoon show, “Tom & Jerry.” No, I’m not intending to primarily focus on these two characters who have been in movies for decades and are still featured on the “children’s channels” we, grown folks, pause and look at for a minute today while channel surfing. These characters just came to mind when I was talking to someone about my getting rid of a spring swarm of termites and that person shared about their battle with mice coming inside their house, located in a secluded, wooded area; entering like they had an open invitation. (Note: It is good to share testimonies, stories about our battles.) As we exchanged stories of how we both tried our own hand at remedying the situation before calling on professional experts for help, a laugh-generating comment was made, “Where’s Tom when you need him?” Even though Jerry the mouse seemed to always get the best of the Tom character in the cartoon show, a real, sly Tomcat might have been the hero who could be called upon to keep the mice out, perhaps, in my friend’s situation.
Tom’s adversary in the show, created in 1940, was always the winner. We, as believers, face an adversary that is similar to Jerry. You know our adversary, the devil. You know that he is always trying to figure out the exact time to get the best of us. Thank God, he is not always successful as Jerry the cartoon mouse. Thank God that we are always on the lookout for his well-planned, deceptive schemes. Thank God that even today, we will be able to preempt his strategies to make us lose a fight against undermining unrighteous traps, unlimited tricks, or unsuspected trials of our faith. We don’t have to ask from a figurative, spiritual perspective, “Where is Tom when you need him?” That’s not an appropriate question. We don’t need a cat. We need the Lord. And when we need the Lord, all we have to do is call on Him to help us. He is our expert help; an incomparable Helper. He answered you before and He will answer you again. We don’t have to wonder where our help comes from. Our help comes from the Lord.
Today, when even the smallest, mice size issue tries to bring you down, call on the Lord to help you come out on top; come out victorious. Call on Him for help with the big issues too! Have a great Good Friday. Yes, remember Good Friday, not just because you might get the day off at your place of employment or the day reminds you to buy that Easter ham. Remember on this Good Friday by pausing and thinking about Jesus and the afternoon He spent on an old rugged cross, dying that we might have life. Pause and praise God for sending His Son to give us a way to have peace with God. Whether working or if you have the day off, don’t think about wearing your Sunday best in a couple of days, but think about how God gave His very best to die for us and in a couple of days, three to be exact, hallelujah, He got up with all power in His hands. He loves you and you know He does! He showed us that He does! Read the verses below my friend. Be blessed!
“Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.” (Roman 5:6-8 The Message Bible)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King