Alarming Alarms!

My day started with the loud sound of the fire alarm going off and waking all the sleeping residents here! I had put some oil on to heat so that I could brown a roast before putting it in the crock-pot and didn’t realize that the oil I used had a lower smoking temp than the olive oil I usually use! I had turned off the stove before the loud wail of the siren started! Doors popped open and sleepy heads were wondering where the fire was! No fire, just me burning oil in the kitchen! Everyone went back for that last few moments of sweet sleep and I continued to cook. It didn’t take a moment before my phone rang with the question, “This is Mid South Security, we got your alarm, is everything OK? I answered in the affirmative, they gave me their half of the code and I gave them mine, proving that I really was who I said I was!

Warnings, alarms, signals, cries for help, have all been on my mind lately. How many times do you talk to a friend and think you see a look in their eye that is desperate, but you hate to ask, you don’t want to be embarrassed. I even dreamed this morning that I saw a man, someone I didn’t know, and asked him what was wrong. I said to him, “You seem troubled, can I pray for you?” He told me he was a minister and gave me his name. Now I am wondering if my spirit traveled into someone’s trouble life, someone who needed help. So upon awakening, before setting off the fire alarm, I prayed for this person of my dreams, just in case they were really “out there” somewhere.

The Psalmist David said: Psalm 22:11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help. 22:19 But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. 27:9 Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Savior.

The man who said these words was said to be a “man after God’s own heart”, so if HE had trouble, who do we think WE are that we expect everything to be “peachy keen” with never a worry? The difference between David going through his troubles and us, going through ours, is that we have this promise from Jesus: John 14:15-17 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth.

The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you! We have the Holy Spirit with us; He is our comforter and helper in times of trouble. I start the morning inviting Him to stay with me all day, and then I pray that if there are “silent alarms” going off around me, I will HEAR it!

Fire alarms are obvious, sometimes people in trouble are not, be aware, be God’s helping hand on this earth for today! Be blessed! And BTW, aren’t you SUPPOSED to check your smoke alarm once every Spring? Well, consider it done in my house!