The Miracle of Spam Emails
【Whisper of the Shepherd】1
Although we may be weak and we often fail to achieve what we set out to do,
But determination is still valuable!
God is watching, because love is not a feeling,
Rather, we decide that God cares about our sincerity...
There are many kinds of miracles, such as physical healing, living provision, marriage reconciliation, etc. What I want to share with you this time is another type of miracle, so that you can also be inspired.
My email address was hacked a while ago, so I immediately changed it to a new one and notified my friends to change the address. While I was waiting for everyone to switch, I noticed that more spam emails appeared in this old mailbox. One of them often sent indecent pictures, and the frequency became more and more frequent, which was quite annoying. I pray to the Lord for help. I want to live before the Lord with a pure heart and not be polluted by these disturbances.
I asked my son Kaili and another young man who was very good at computers, Patrick, to help block the email sending pictures, but to no avail. I thought to myself that it would be fine if I simply deactivated my old email account. Who knows, even though I followed the instructions and even called Yahoo to ask, it still couldn't be deactivated. They both found it strange!
Be brave enough to fight
I thought, since it cannot be eliminated, and since we often say that God causes all things to work together for good (see Romans 8:28), then God must have a good purpose. I can’t stop the birds from flying over my head, but at least I can stop them from nesting in my head. Didn’t God leave the seven tribes of Canaan to teach the Israelites how to fight? (Refer to Judges 3:2 )? How can we call ourselves victorious if we have never faced trials and battles?
One day I had a clear dream about a bunch of disgusting, filthy spirits that looked like slugs, bullfrogs, and snakes. They set traps under a bowl of rice and stared at me eagerly, waiting for me to fall into them. in the mouth. I know this is God loving me and kindly warning me! Two passages of scripture immediately came to mind:
"If you separate what is precious from what is base, you shall be my mouth." (Refer to Jeremiah 15:19)
“If a man purifies himself from what is base, he will be a vessel of honor, holy and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work.” (2 Timothy 2:21)
Suddenly I understood that God had two purposes: 1. The unstoppable spam emails were because God allowed the evil ones to attack and wanted me to win the battle. 2. The email address cannot be closed. It was God who told me, “Heavenly Father will never give up on loving me!” (The old email address was called abbalovefred.) So, I said to the Lord, “I want to follow Job’s example of making a covenant with my eyes (refer to Covenant Job 31:1), and also follow the example of the Rechabites in keeping their agreement with their ancestors (refer to Jeremiah 35:1-19). I am determined not to touch this email, and may my battle belong to the Lord (refer to 1 Samuel). 17:47), please help me to stop this spam email automatically.”
Receive the Lord’s reward
Two and a half weeks later, one day, I wrote in my diary: "I once asked God to stop the emails that often send indecent pictures, but it seems that I haven't seen them these few times. If so, God did listen to me. I prayed and rejoiced in my covenant. I couldn’t be more grateful.” A month later, I wrote in my diary: “Since I made a covenant with God, spam emails have really disappeared. Is this a coincidence? It must be a miraculous act of God! God. "Father still loves me, and I really passed the exam!" But I still couldn't believe it. Out of curiosity, I checked again after more than two months, and it really didn't appear anymore, until today! Amazing, wouldn't you say?
Now that we’ve talked about the miracle of spam emails, what’s the lesson? I think God wants us to take Him seriously and to fight sin to the point of shedding blood (see Hebrews 12:4). He wants us to overcome. He says:"Young men, I have written to you, because you have overcome the evil one." (Refer to 1 John 2:13)God allows trials to come, not to harm us, but to pass them so that we can participate in the rewards of the kingdom of God (see Romans 8:28-30; Revelation 3:21).
The value of determination
Heavenly Father never gives up loving us (see Romans 8:35-39), and it is because of love that discipline (see Hebrews 12:4-10) allows everyone to face challenges—some people To forgive, some people must overcome the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of this life. For some people, God requires them to pray and read the Bible seriously. For some people, God requires them to tithe... Everyone has his own needs. Yes, I believe you will be no exception. One of my students, who later became a pastor, testified that it was “not difficult” to decide to quit smoking because he had quit a hundred times! Until one day, a voice inside said to him: "You don't need to smoke." Suddenly he stopped smoking.
Another sister said she wanted to forgive others, but failed many times. Until one day, when the time came, I forgave, and when we saw each other again, I was completely relieved. So if you have not yet won the test you are facing today, don’t be discouraged, because growth is a lifelong matter. I would like to encourage you, the game is only half-time, if you fail, stand up again, one day you will win!
But determination is still necessary, because God is waiting for the right opportunity to help you. Don't use "It's up to me to decide to do good, but it's not up to me to do it" as an excuse to give up on your determination. On the Christian's pilgrimage, there is always human responsibility. We must say to God: "I do." Then God can give grace and increase strength.
God cannot make decisions for us. Although we may be weak and often fail to achieve what we set our minds to, determination is still valuable! God is watching, because love is not a feeling, but a decision. God cares about our sincerity. In the process of sincerity but failure, He allows us to see our own inadequacy and the lack of goodness within us, and humbly trust Him. He designs it from beginning to end. One day, God saw that the time had come, the right time, the right place, and the right people, and He stretched out His powerful arm from the sky to take away our difficulties and help us to win the final victory! This is a very small but wonderful miracle. Spam email is originally a bad thing, but God turned it into a tool to demonstrate His power and became a sign of His appearance to me. Heavenly Father, You are so creative! You really listen to prayers, you really look into people’s hearts, and you really test again and again. I hope I will still pass next time and still please you.
Author profile Pastor Xu Zongshi holds a PhD in microbiology and a Master of Divinity from Trinity Theological Seminary in Chicago. He is currently the senior pastor of the Evangelization Center. Author of the book "Flying Out of the Bird Cage".