Recently my husband and I got home from a stressful day at work to find that our home was a wreck because contractors had begun working on redoing our ceiling. We knew they were coming by to redo some previous work that was not quiet right.
However we did not know that this required that our floors and furniture be covered with plastic and all our pictures on the walls be removed again. We had already been through this a few weeks earlier and it was a real mess that took a lot of time and energy to clean up. Now once again our house was in disarray.
A little while later that evening we realized that our air conditioner was no longer blowing cool air. Just warm air was coming out of the vents. By then it was dark outside and difficult to see. My husband knows how to fix appliances because we own an appliance service and parts company, so we knew it would be fixed but not at this late hour. So we slept with fans blowing on us in 90 degree Florida weather.
It was certain that our house was in shambles due to the reconstruction project and now it was certain that we would not have air conditioning for the evening.
I don't know about you but there are certain places in life that I would rather not be in.
The word certain is defined several ways but one really stood out to me.
Certain is defined as- destined; sure to happen.
The Bible talks about some certain places that people were in. Let's take a look at some of these places.
Jacob went to a certain place.
Genesis 28:11
When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
If you read more about this certain place that Jacob went to, you would find that he was in an awesome place. A place he called the house of God and the gate of heaven. Why? Because he had a dream and saw a stairway resting on the earth, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Above the stairway stood the Lord. This is the place where the Lord made a promise to Jacob to bless him and his descendants. Not only that, he promised to watch over him and never leave him. I like that certain kind of place don't you?
The King of Ai went to a certain place.
Joshua 8:14:
When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city.
Looks like the King of Ai's certain place was much different than Jacob's certain place. The King of Ai's certain place turned out to be a place of ambush. He and his men fled their city to go after the Israelites and found themselves surrounded by the Israelites where they were ambushed and the Israelites destroyed all the people of Ai. The King was even destroyed by Joshua when Joshua hung him on a tree. They took his body down that evening and threw it down at the entrance of the city gate. They raised a large pile of rocks over it, which the Bible states remains until this day.
Amazing how Jacob found himself at heaven's gate and received a blessing from the Lord and the King of Ai found himself at the city gate lying dead after an ambush.
David and his fighting men went to a certain place.
1 Samuel 21:2:
David answered Ahimelek the priest, "The king sent me on a mission and said to me, 'No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on; As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place.
David was on the run from his worst enemy, King Saul. He had just left King Saul's son Jonathan. They had kissed each other and wept together. It seems that David was alone but God was still with him.
Then David went to a place called Nob. There he went before Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he met David and asked, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?
Basically David made up a story about being on a secret mission for the king and told Ahimelech that he was going to be meeting his men at a certain place. Seems that sometimes a certain place is just somewhere that you would rather not tell everyone about.
Jesus went to a certain place.
Luke 11:1
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."
Sometimes a certain place requires that we pray and then teach others. Jesus demonstrated what prayer looked like and therefore his disciples realized how important prayer must be and wanted to learn from Jesus. So Jesus taught them what we call the Lord's Prayer today. He taught them that if they ask, they will receive. He taught them that prayer was a time to talk to their Father in Heaven. He taught them that their Heavenly Father was a good Father and would give them good things if they would be bold enough to ask God, their Heavenly Father, through prayer.
Certain places are inevitable. We will all end up in certain places in our lives. Some will be places that will bring us blessings. Some will be places where we may be ambushed unexpectedly. Some will be places that we just don't want to tell others about. But all of these certain places are places that we can pray and talk to our Heavenly Father and ask him boldly for whatever we need. And the best part about it, is God is a good Father and will give us what we need when we ask.
Thankfully my husband was able to fix our air conditioner early the next morning. We are enjoying having a cool house again. However, the construction workers are still redoing our ceiling and our home is still a real mess. A holiday weekend is coming up and we are not even sure our home will be back in order by then. We are in this certain place of reconstruction and it is one of those places that takes a while to get out of. However, we are praying for the Lord to help the workers do a good job this time and bless us with a beautiful ceiling.
God is always in the certain places with us. We can count on that. So we need to be like Jesus and pray in the certain places.
What certain place are you in today?
Do you feel like you are close to God in this certain place?
Do you feel like you are being ambushed unexpectedly?
Are you in a place where you feel it is best not to tell others about, for your own protection?
Have you prayed to your Heavenly Father in this certain place?
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you that you never leave us or forsake us. Thank you for teaching us about certain places in our lives. Thank you that when we get in these certain places that we are destined to be in, that you are there with us and we can pray to you and know that because you are a good Father that you will only give us good things. We may not see them as good at the time but with your grace they always work out for our good. Help us to stand firm in our faith and keep coming to you boldly no matter what place we are in. We love you Father! Thank you for loving us. Thank you that Jesus taught us to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. In Jesus name we pray, Amen
