I don’t know what it’s like where you are, but my day today is chilly, blustery and spitting rain. Spitting is such an appropriate term, for it’s just little bits of water hitting randomly on your face, much like someone standing too close, excitedly talking.

I’m ok with today, but let me tell you about yesterday . . .

I have been painting the exterior of my house, and this is the third year! I have requested so much vacation time for this that my manager asked me if I was continuing the project or actually repainting my house every year. It feels like I’m painting the Mackinac Bridge, which is the longest suspension bridge in the country–spanning 5 miles over water. By the time they sandblast and paint the entire bridge, it’s time to start over. Yep, feels like I’m painting the Mackinac Bridge. If I had seriously thought about it, I probably would never have started such a daunting project, but I just dove in.

How hard could it be?

A year before my husband died, I came home from work to find him painting the house. “Why are you painting the house?”, I asked. “Oh, the snow blower must have taken some paint off the house.” How nice, I thought to myself, that he was right on it. It was looking great or so I thought.

After he died, I discovered I couldn’t wash the windows. They were amazingly dirty, all of a sudden, but I soon  discovered that the air-seal between the double panes of all the windows around the back of the house had been broken; rendering them all cloudy, and no longer capable of being cleaned or to see through them.

The mystery continued as I began to notice a path of paint bubbling and peeling all around two thirds of the house, mysteriously though, only up to a certain height. Whereas, the original paint, though fading, was still tight and intact.

Finally piecing the story together . . .

There came the time that I could no longer ignore what was happening to my house and this is when I jumped in, without much thought, to tackle it. During the scraping process, along with the evidence of peeling paint, I could trace the path that my husband took in his painting process. The grain on those boards was severely raised, and then suddenly it dawned on me that he must have rented a power washer. Evidently he used a much too-powerful nozzle, which damaged the siding and took out all my back windows. He had made it around over 2/3 the house before noticing the damage that was done, or maybe he never noticed at all. I expect with that big bad tumor, deep in his brain, he had no clue at all.

So, I spent a lot of time sanding; trying to smooth the grain back down on the boards. They seemed great until I painted, and then it didn’t seem like I had done anything at all.

All that work for what?

Next, I discovered that it’s not a good idea to lean too far while holding a power tool. This ripped me right off the ladder when I was up at the peak of the roof. Yeah, I laid there awhile, prayed my way through, and learned the hard way not to ever do that again!

So, yesterday, they were calling for thunderstorms at a 73% chance. I had a lot of raw board that had just been scraped and sanded, and was determined that wasn’t going to happen before I got the primer on. It was supposed to start around 1:00pm. My prayer conversation with the weather started at 10:00am and in faith I started to paint. I looked at the weather app at 11:00 and their prediction changed to 3:00pm, same storm. I continued painting and telling the weather it wasn’t going to rain on my house. The black clouds came and went throughout the day and throughout the day I continued to command them to leave. Each time, the sun would return and the clouds would leave; meanwhile the weather app again changed the storm to 6:00pm and then to 10:30pm, while I continued to paint. Finally finishing at 7:00pm, I looked up at the sky, giving it one final charge . . . “You will not rain on my paint until it is dry!”

At 10:30 I took my dog out and it was pouring, hard!

I’d love to say I was all confident, after a successful day of commanding my way, but no, I had an active imagination of coming out the next day to see a milky-white primer splash all over my already painted siding. Did it have enough time to dry?

My faith wasn’t quite as bold at the midnight hour!

The thought of re-scraping and re-sanding all that work had severely deflated my confidence!

But the Lord put me out of my misery, when He assured me that everything is alright and the next thing I knew it was 9:00 am and I don’t remember the last time I had slept so sound and so late!

So, in the lightly-spitting rain, I went out to investigate, only to find that it was just as the Lord had said . . .

Everything is alright!

Thank you, Lord, for protecting my paint!

We had a major storm go through here a few years back. The neighbor across had trees uprooted. The neighbor to the side had their entire yard filled with branches and rubble. I walked out and picked up only two small branches, even though two of my trees are very old! I have experienced numerous incidences regarding weather, too numerous to list–we can rebuke adverse weather; declare and receive God’s protection.

I am not alone in this. Many have come to realize the authority that comes with living as citizens of the Kingdom. So, I urge you to live your life as a King’s kid, you are a child of the KING! But, I highly suggest you hire a professional painter–I don’t wish this sort of mess on anyone!

If you are not His child, what are you waiting for?

Receive Jesus into your heart today!

“Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.” James 5:17

“And he awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?’ And they were filled with awe, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him?'” Mark 4:39-40

“‘Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.” John 14:12