“My Anxious Cry” by Reva Lachica Moore
Every morning I take time to begin my day with a prayer. And this is after I had already prayed for that day’s events the night before. It is never a wasted time to commune with our God.
Ellen G. White wrote: “When you rise in the morning, do you feel your helplessness and your need of strength from God? And do you humbly, heartily make known your wants to your heavenly Father? If so, angels mark your prayers.”
With so many uncertainties in our daily lives, I do feel my helplessness that only God can give assurance and help, and so I diligently seek Him every day.
My day started out normal like any other day of the week. We had planned to go to the store but at the last minute, I lost all interest to go. I asked my husband if we could just stay home and go at another time. We sat in the den and watched TV instead.
“The light in the game room is flickering,” my husband remarked.
I turned around and looked at the light and it looked a little dimmer. However, I was not alarmed because it is controlled by a dimmer switch.
A minute later, we heard a loud thud. “What was that?” my husband asked.
“It must just be a toy that fell,” I answered. Again, I was not worried thinking a toy could have fallen on the tile.
But our granddaughter kept going to the game room and so I thought of turning off the lights there so she would stay in the den. Without looking, I pushed the dimmer switch, but felt a shock and heat. Then I saw it! There was no dimmer knob. The brass knob had fallen to the tile below. That was the loud thud that we had heard earlier.
I picked up the knob, but the stem of the dimmer switch had melted inside it.
“Come quickly! Something is wrong with this light switch!” I called my husband.
He checked it out and saw that something inside the wall plate had burned. He went to get a screwdriver while I stood there staring at the switch. Through the small hole, I saw fire inside the wall plate, and it was getting brighter and bigger!
“Turn off the circuit breaker!” I screamed with much panic in my voice.
Those few seconds seemed like eternity while I called on God for help. Then the electricity was cut off.
Half of the switch had melted and part of the wires had burned, but thank God, our house did not burn down. I suddenly realized why I did not feel like going to the store that afternoon. God knew the light switch was going bad.
Whenever a house burns down and you ask what had caused the fire and the answer is “electrical” – I know now that something like electrical wires could short out.
Charles Spurgeon wrote: “Our extremities are the Lord’s opportunities. Immediately, a keen sense of danger forces an anxious cry from us, and the ear of Jesus hears, and with Him, ear and heart go together. At the last moment, we appeal to our Master, but His swift hand makes up for our delays by instant and effectual action. Are we nearly engulfed by the boisterous waters of affliction? Let us then lift up our souls unto our Saviour, and we may rest assured that He will not suffer us to perish. When we can do nothing, Jesus can do all things; let us enlist His powerful aid upon our side, and all will be well.”
Psalms 4:8 says: “I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.