I have spent the better part of my life asking God to bless me.  Give me a better job or more money God.  Give me a better house or a better car.  Give me.  Give me.  Give me.  But today I realize the very things I wanted most were not the things I needed at all.  I realize today that the things that have blessed me the most are some of the most painful, terrible things that I have experienced. 

There was a time in my life when I dreamed of buying a soda but I didn’t have the 63 cents to buy one.  There was a time in my life when I cried myself to sleep every night wishing for one more day with my deceased wife.  There was a time in my life when I was the odd man out, the quiet one, the one that was picked on and called names.  And I have spent much of my life crying out to God to take away what I experienced as a young child and the addictions that followed because of it.  Why?  Why did God give me such pain?  Because He loves me. 

I am who I am today because of where I have been.  How can a knife be sharpened without a stone?  Why would a person change if they are always comfortable and content?  My life, every bit of my life is a gift.  I was blessed when I had little to eat and I am blessed today with more than enough.  I was blessed when I slept alone with tears in my eyes and I am blessed today with a beautiful wife.  I am blessed today with a past that is always haunting me despite me asking God repeatedly to take it. 

Even though I have experienced many struggles and heartaches in my life, God is not through with me yet.  I am far from perfect.  My life is far from perfect.  I continue to weather storms as I struggle to finish the race that I am running.  God continues to mold me along the way. 

If you are still alive, you are not completely hardened.  You are clay that can still be molded.  It’s never too late for God to mold and shape you but you have to allow Him.  If you smack His hands away with anger and resentment you won’t be changed.  If you curse Him for trying to shape you into something beautiful He can’t help you.  Those that emerge from trials and tragedy triumphant do not do so because they themselves are strong.  They emerge because they surrender.  They emerge because they realize their power and strength is not enough.  They emerge because it’s not them causing the emerging.  It’s the power of God.

The world wants you to live your life like a victim.  It wants you to believe that someone owes you something no matter how you live your life.  In the name of fairness, incentive and responsibility are being lost.  The line between winners and losers is fading.  Black and white is turning to gray. 

The world says that everyone that runs a race deserves a prize because those that win have an unfair advantage.  But don’t you know that all good gifts are from God?  Some are blessed with the ability to jump.  Some are blessed with the ability to think.  Some are blessed with the ability to speak well.  Not all gifts from God make us successful from the world’s perspective.  Could it be that the one that won the race won because God wanted them to win?  Could it be that God wanted them to have an ‘unfair’ advantage?  Is being a winner while on earth really the blessing that the world makes it out to be anyway?    
  
The world wants you to feel sorry for yourself if you don’t have a certain house, a certain car, or don’t make a certain amount of money.  But blessed are those people that suffer to keep food on the table.  Blessed are those people that don’t know how they will pay their next bill.  Blessed are those that mourn a tragic loss.  God is drawn to those that are in need.  God is with those that cry out to Him.     
        
The world and everything it teaches is wrong.  Life is not fair.  Not everyone wins.  Not everyone deserves a prize.  The truth is we don’t deserve anything.  If I trained hard and won a race it wouldn’t be because of me.  My power is worthless.  Who gave me the ability to run?  Who gave me the work ethic to work hard?  Who gave me my good health?

Many of those that win while on earth only enjoy their winnings for a little while.  Trophys rust.  Power and popularity fade.  Earthly winnings are only temporary.  Your retirement nest egg can’t buy you an ocean view in heaven.

Despite what the world tells you, God has you right where He wants you.  God has given you the gifts He wanted to give you.  Humbly accept your lot in life.  Realize how blessed you are.  Am I saying to not dream, not have hope, and not work hard?  Absolutely not!  I am saying to praise God win or lose, rich or poor.  If you win it’s because God wants you to win.  If you lose it’s because God wants you to lose.  God will mold and shape you through it all.  Don’t envy what others have but look forward to what you will receive.  Don’t place your hope in a president, a job, or a stock market.  Place your hope in Jesus Christ.  Everyone that runs after Him will win.       
 
Matthew 5:3-5 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

You were chosen.  You are not a part of random selection.  Psalm 139:13 “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.”  If God chose to make you, He has a purpose for your life.  If God used His time on you, you are blessed.

If you are reading this God allows you to live.  You are breathing the air that God has given you to breathe.  Where you are at this exact moment in your life is not an accident.  God does not have accidents.  God does not make mistakes.    

God causes the sun to come up in the morning to light your way and heat the day.  He sends rain to water the earth so the plants grow.  Does He do these things because you deserve them?  Does He give food to only those that love and acknowledge Him?  I have spent a large portion of my life living for me.  Yet, I always had food to eat.  I always had enough money to get by.  No matter where my heart was at, I have always been blessed by the creator.

We are all incredibly blessed!  But you may say, “Jason, you don’t know my life.  You don’t know what I have had to endure.”  If you thought those thoughts you are right.  I don’t know what your childhood was like.  I don’t know the many ways you have been mistreated in your life.  But there is one that has seen it all.  He understands your pain and your suffering.  Again you may say, “But why did He allow those things to happen to me?  How can a loving God sit back and do nothing while I suffer?”  I would answer that question with another.  “Didn’t God allow His own Son to suffer terribly and be tortured and killed?  Does that mean He didn’t love Him?”  Of course not.  God had a plan and a purpose for His suffering.    

God has a reason and a purpose for everything.  We can’t begin to understand His ways because they are so much higher than ours.  We can only understand to the point our understanding has been given.  Sometimes as a parent I have to make rules for my children to follow.  No matter how much I try to explain something to them, they often don’t understand why I do what I do.  But in every decision I make for them, it is for their good.  Sometimes they complain.  Sometimes they get angry.  Sometimes they argue.  Isn’t that what we do with God?  If we don’t understand why things happen we can get frustrated and angry with Him.   
  
As a child matures they become an adult.  When they become an adult they will see from an adult’s perspective.  They will understand why their parents did what they did.  They will understand their parents didn’t want to cause them grief or pain.  They will know their parents did what they did out of love. 

The day is coming when followers of Jesus Christ will see like God sees.  There will be a day when we understand why God did what He did.  Until that day when we fully understand we are just told to “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)  We don’t have to have all the answers.  We are just told to have faith and trust Him. 

Look around you today.  Take in all the ways you have been blessed.  Do you have a house, a car, family and friends?  Do you have food to eat?  Can you walk?  Can you speak?  Do you have an opportunity to live with the creator of the universe forever?  How blessed you are if God has opened your eyes to the truth of His son Jesus Christ.  If you believe in Him it’s because God chose you to believe.  We don’t deserve yet over and over again God gives.

Every morning the sun comes up thank God for the gift.  When He opens the skies and causes rain to fall thank Him for His love.  Our lives are filled with blessings.  God’s presence is all around us.  How do we sometimes fail to see how amazing God is? 

Have you ever wondered why God made the seasons?  God didn’t just randomly decide anything in creation.  The seasons represent our life as believers.  In the spring everything is young and fresh and flowers begin to sprout.  The summer time brings great growth and flowers begin changing to fruit.  The fall represents a mature plant.  The fruit is ready for harvest and the leaves on the trees turn beautiful shades of red and gold.  Winter represents death.  The days are dark and gloomy and things quit growing.  But something beautiful and amazing happens after winter.  Grass begins to sprout.  Trees begin to bud.  As much as most people hate winter, without winter we can’t have spring.  Without death we can’t have life.

Slow down.  Stop.  Listen.  Do you see that?  It is God speaking to you through His creation.  Do you hear that?  It is God speaking to you through His people.  Do you feel that?  It is God speaking to you through your heart.  God is a jealous God.  He wants your attention.  He wants your devotion.  He designed you.  He made you.  He chose you.  He has given you so much.  How can we not give Him the little we have?  What do we have that the creator God could possibly want?  He wants our heart.

Slow down.  Stop.  Listen.  God is speaking to you.  Will you resond?  Will you give Him your heart?            
 

When my first wife died in 2006 it felt like my world stopped.  I would go to the store and be overwhelmed with the way everyone was rushing around.  It’s not that people hadn’t always been rushing around but I hadn’t noticed it because I had always been rushing around too.  But at that time I had no place to be and nowhere to go.  For the first time I saw the life I used to live and I was shocked at what I saw.

When I think about how my eyes were opened at that time, I am reminded of Daniel 12:4 and how the prophet wrote people would be at the end of time.  “Now as for you, Daniel, roll up your scroll and seal your words until the time of the end. Many will rush around, while knowledge increases."  And why are people rushing around?  They are rushing around for the same reason I was and sometimes still do; to have more fun, to acquire more things, and to accomplish more goals.  It’s human nature to want to experience pleasure.

Should Christians have goals and have fun?  Absolutely!  It’s wonderful to experience all that God has given us but pleasing God must be our number one goal and our every thought should be with that goal in mind.  The closer we draw to Him the more opportunities He may give us to accomplish our desires and dreams.  Of course, we can try to do it on our own and by the world’s standards we may even be highly successful when we try, but what good is that short term success if we lose our soul in the process?    
       
Have you ever noticed that as knowledge (technology) increases our busyness increases too?  The world sells advancements in technology as help to us and in many ways physically they are, but spiritually they often have the opposite effect.  If we are constantly buying, fixing, using, and thinking about our electronic gadgets, we have less time and money to give, to help, to love, and to think about our creator.  Am I against technology?  I am not.  But it should be a very small part of our life.  God doesn’t want a piece of our heart.  He wants all of it.  1 Corinthians 10:22-23 “Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?  “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible,” but not everything is edifying.”  We should ask ourselves, does the technology I am using take me closer to God or further away?

The drain of trying to keep up with this life is real.  Part of satan’s plan is to get us so busy chasing after things, we don’t have time for God.  Without even realizing it we can easily worship the evil one through our actions and attitudes because satan is the God of the world (2 Corinthians 4:4).  If we run with the world our hearts will become far from God.  1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.  For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.  We must be different.  We must press pause, step back, and listen.      

When God opened our eyes to believe in Him and His Son that He sent, we were set apart from the world.  He knew from the beginning who His people would be.  2 Thessalonians 2:13 “But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth.”  What an incredible gift He has offered to those that accept it.

Did Paul choose to be a minister to the Gentiles?  Did Peter decide that he was going to be a leader in the early church?  God knew from the beginning of the world that Paul and Peter were His men.  If you believe in Jesus Christ it is because God chose to reveal that to you.  He chose you to be His servant.  How can we not fall to our knees at this incredible blessing?  How can we choose not to give Him our very best?  How can we get caught up in games, movies, politics, fighting, lusting, pride, jealousy, materialism, and every worldly pleasure there is when the creator of the universe said, “I choose you.” 

The people that God has chosen have a chance, an opportunity to be like Him one day (1 John 3:2).  Yet many will walk away choosing their measly 70 or 80 years on earth to live it up for themselves (Matthew 13:18-23, Matthew 22:14).  How can we turn away from eternal bliss with our creator for a car, a career, or a computer screen?  We were made for so much more than things that rust and pass away.  We were chosen to reign with Christ forever.  I urge you to set down your phones, your pride, and your selfishness so your hands will be free to pick up your cross. 

The gift of Him revealing Himself to us is free.  The gift of our salvation is free.  But we must choose it.  We must submit.  We must be willing to give the little we have to offer.  A few years on earth is such a small sacrifice compared to what God has in store for those that follow Him.  Never lose sight of the prize.  You can’t get a prize if you don’t win the race and you can’t win a race if you don’t run.  Don’t sleep walk after God.  Run!  1 Corinthians 9:24-27 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.  No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

1 Peter 2:11-12 “Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.  Be careful to live properly among your unbelieving neighbors. Then even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will give honor to God when he judges the world.”
      

Many believe the book of Revelation is a book of the future.  I believe that much of it is already in the past.  But I am not writing this to debate or even try to explain what most would call the most challenging book in the Bible.  Maybe that’s another blog for another day but regardless of your belief about the prophetic book, we can learn much from it.    

I think anyone reading this would agree that life is very hard.  Sandwiched between smiles and laughs are tears, heartaches, and difficulties.  Sometimes the difficulties are so overwhelmingly hard that those without hope do the unimaginable and choose to check out of this life.  How could life get so bad?  Why is a life given by a loving God so painful?

In order to understand our difficulties we need to understand our nature.  After God flooded the earth and destroyed everything living that wasn’t on the ark, He said something that we must hear.  Genesis 8:21 “"Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.”  If EVERY inclination of the human heart is evil, than any time someone is nice or shows love it is from God.  Without God, we are completely evil.  Because we are evil, God is constantly working to refine and purify us.  How does He do this?  Through trials, tests, and difficulties.

In three different places in Revelation God causes mankind to suffer and man refused to repent:

Revelation 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk.  Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

Revelation 16:9 “They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.”

Revelation 16:10-11 “People gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.”

Just days ago I read these versus in unbelief.  How could these people go through all that and still not repent?  But then God spoke to me as I was studying the word.  These verses are not some far off event that is yet to happen.  This is the heart of man throughout history.  I have been that man that refused to repent. 

We know that God loves all His creation.  When God spoke to the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:19-20, He tells us He brings trouble upon us for a purpose.  He brings trouble to change our hearts.  But all the trouble in the world will not cause us to repent without a willing heart.  We must choose it.  “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.  Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”  If we don’t repent and turn to Him, we will spend eternity in a place completely void of God.  We don’t know what that feels like because we feel and see His presence on earth almost everywhere we look.  In that place there will be no light, no warmth, no love, no smiles, no joy, and no hope.

Every difficulty you experience is an opportunity for you to glorify God.  Every struggle that God gives you is gift given for you to become a little more like Him.  The more trouble we have, the stronger in spirit we can become.  If we look at trouble and suffering from a flesh perspective, we can easily get frustrated and angry with God.  If we look at heartache and pain from a spiritual perspective, we see it for what it is…a gift.  God is not an evil God for allowing pain and heartache to happen.  God is a beautiful and amazing God for giving us the opportunity to turn from our wickedness and repent.  Time is running out.  Don't let Him find you sleeping.               

I will admit, sometimes I worry.  To be more specific, I worry about the future.  I worry about the safety of my family and being persecuted for our beliefs.  It’s not so much about me but those that I love.  I can handle whatever I have to deal with but I want my family to be protected.

Recently God has been speaking to me about prayer.  Over the course of 3 or 4 days I must have seen the parable of the persistent widow found in the Gospel of Luke 6 or 7 times.  Last week I talked to the students in our small group at church about the parable and then this week on the same day I randomly opened my Bible to the exact page 2 times and then a friend shared the parable with me.  In the parable God illustrates that if we do not give up in prayer, He will eventually answer.  But to receive we must ask.  I have been asking that He take away my fear and that He protect our family.

Yesterday found me hunting from the same tree that I was in when I shot two deer a few weeks ago.  For those that didn’t read the blog, “God is in all the details,” I met a squirrel face to face that day while hunting.  Shortly after our close encounter, the squirrel was walking across the forest floor when a hawk shot down from the trees in an attempt to catch the squirrel but the hawk missed.  My friend lived to see another day.

Guess who came to visit me yesterday?  You guessed it, my squirrel friend was back.  This time he kept his distance as he scurried up a tree about 15 feet from the one I was in.  He didn’t stop climbing until he was eye level with me then he climbed out on a limb towards me for a better look.  We then had a stare down for a minute or two.  “Thank you for sending my friend back to me,” I silently said to God. 

When the squirrel was done saying hello, he climbed down the tree and worked his way across the freshly fallen leaves on the ground.  I looked away for a second and then from the corner of my eye I saw a flash of motion.  I then heard a loud crashing noise that startled me so bad that I jumped a bit in my seat.  I looked to my right to see a hawk sprawled out on the ground with his wings still spanned out.  He must have knocked himself silly trying to get my friend because he just stayed there like he was in a daze.  After about 30 seconds he gathered himself and flew off.  A few minutes later my friend came out of hiding and climbed back up a tree next to me and remained there at eye level for the next 15 minutes or so doing all kinds of talking like he was full of joy because he lived to see another day.             

I sat in my tree amazed at what I got to see.  I thanked God for the opportunity not really knowing why He had allowed me to see that same scenario play out again.  This morning while in prayer it all became clear.  I wasn’t thinking about hunting or the night before when all of the sudden I knew deep within me what God was trying to show me.  The squirrel represented those closest to me or my family.  The hawk represented the evil one trying to snatch them away from me.  The squirrel seemed very vulnerable and should have been eaten but instead he was kept safe and the hawk received a blow.  After we withstand an attack and we will be attacked, the evil one will leave and we will come out to sing from the trees once again.   

Psalm 91 “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 
Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” 
 
 

The weather was perfect.  My wife was off work and we had nothing else planned, it seemed today might be the day.  I had only been hunting a few times this year with the first month of the season almost gone.  But my plans seemed to change when I got a phone call.  It was my wife calling to tell me that she got invited to go to a Casting Crowns concert with a friend and the concert was that night.  Knowing that God had a hand in her getting invited, I told her to go ahead.  “What about your hunting?” she asked.  I told her it was no big deal.  I knew that if God put it on someone’s heart to invite her to the concert, than she should go. 
 
It wasn’t long and my wife called me back with a plan on how I could still hunt.  It didn’t seem feasible at the time but after some checking around, it was all set.  I would go hunting and she would still go to the concert.  I rushed home from work to get some things done and then showered.  While I was getting dressed I complained to my wife that I didn’t have all my hunting clothes washed in the fragrance free soap.  She told me not to worry about the deer smelling me because God was in control.  I agreed and headed to the woods.
 
When I pulled into my friends drive around 4pm on that sunny day he was outside cutting the grass.  He turned off his lawnmower and I rolled down the window so we could talk.  He asked if I had been out there hunting much and I told him only a few times.  He apologized that he was cutting the grass but told me he had already put it off for too long.  “I will be about an hour,” he said.  “Will that mess up your hunting?”  “Go ahead and mow,” I told him.  Even though I knew that his mowing could be detrimental to my hunting, how could I ask someone to stop mowing their grass?  I didn’t get down or upset.  I just proceeded to get ready for the hunt.  I knew that if God wanted me to get a deer that night I would.    
 
My friend’s hunting woods is filled with deer but it can sometimes be tricky to get to my tree stand without the deer knowing that I am coming through.  Today would be different.  With the sound of the mower blades buzzing loudly through the woods, I slipped through the trees and up my tree stand without making an audible sound.  No sooner than I had made it to the top of my ladder, my friend turned off his mower and put it away.  You talk about perfect timing, I thought.  I thanked God right then because I knew He had spoken to my friend’s heart. 
 
I hadn’t been settled in the stand 10 minutes when a thought crossed my mind.  Tree stand hunting is a much different way to get your food.  If you go to the store to get your food, you are buying food that a person raised or grew.  Sure God supplies everything and He makes the crops grow, but for a person to buy food from the store, many people must do their jobs to get the food in your hands.  When you go to the grocery you know food will be there because people will have put it there.  Not so with tree stand hunting.  If God doesn’t bring a deer by my stand I don’t eat.  You must have faith to sit and wait.
 
Moments after I had thought these thoughts and even shared them on a social website with my phone, I began to hear commotion just behind my tree.  I slowly turned and looked over my shoulder to see a deer feeding on acorns from the ground.  My heart began to pound as I turned back around and took a few deep breaths.  “Thank you God for bringing deer to me,” I prayed.  It wasn’t long and noticed a second deer approaching from the rear.  I noticed it was the larger of the two deer as I continued to struggle to keep my heart rate in the normal range.  If I could, I knew I wanted to shoot the bigger doe.
 
While looking over my shoulder watching the deer continue to draw closer I became a bit startled.  I heard some scratching coming from my tree about eye level with me.  As I continued to listen to the sound and look for what was causing it, a squirrel came around to my side of the tree and his cute little eyes looked into mine.  His face couldn’t have been more than a foot away from mine but strangely enough I didn’t get nervous.  We just had a stare down for a brief moment.  While looking into his eyes I almost felt as if I was looking into God’s.  It’s as if that squirrel was part of God’s response to my prayer and He was saying I am with you and watching over you.  Then as quickly as he had showed up he was gone. 
 
Moments later a large hawk swooped down in front of me to catch the squirrel that was now on the ground but the hawk missed.  The hawk flew back out of sight and I could hear him in the distance possibly verbalizing his frustrations.  I was thinking about what I had just experienced when I was quickly brought back in the moment by the sounds of the deer continuing to browse behind me.  My heart seemed to beat louder and louder as the deer drew closer and closer.  As I struggled to patiently wait on the deer, I couldn’t help but just be in awe.  What an experience to see how God was orchestrating everything for me.
 
After what seemed like an eternity but was probably more like 20 minutes, the movement of the larger deer just stopped.  I turned my head to look behind me but she was nowhere to be found.  I had kept my eye on the smaller of the two deer because she was now out to my left but the larger one had vanished.  I began to panic that she may have snuck away but all the while I continued to pray that God would help me.  I looked again and then I saw her.  Why did the noise stop?  Because she had lain down a short distance behind my tree.  I couldn’t believe my eyes. 
 
Now in order to get a shot behind my tree it was going to take quite a bit of maneuvering and maneuvering usually gets you busted by the deer’s keen eye site.  But how can a deer notice movement that it can’t see?  God had this deer positioned so that she was looking directly away from me.  Any other direction at all and she would have quite likely seen me but because of the direction she was facing for all intents and purposes she was blind to me.  Because I knew the deer couldn’t see me, I was able to stay calmer than I normally would have been while I maneuvered for a shot.  I stood up, moved around to the left side of the tree so I could draw my bow, aimed, and released.  God guided my arrow and the shot was successful.  The deer ran off but I knew the arrow had hit its mark.
 
The shot startled the second deer and she ran a bit before stopping.  After some time she walked back toward me into an opening through the tree branches and I aimed and released.  This shot was also successful.  The deer ran away the opposite direction the first deer ran.  I tried to stop shaking so I could text me wife to tell her what had happened but my fat fingers seemed to have grown during the hunt.  After much struggle I was able to communicate that I had shot 2 deer.         
 
Because I felt the shot on the second deer was better than the shot on the first, I decided to look for the second deer first.  I was trying to beat the fading sunlight so instead of looking for a blood trail, I walked to the last place I saw her when she ran away and started looking in that area.  Like a magnet being drawn to it, I found the first deer within a minute or two.  Upon approaching the deer I fell to my knees and thanked God with tear filled eyes.    
 
Finding the other deer was much like the first one I found.  I went straight to the last place I saw the deer run before it disappeared out of sight and started looking.  I wasn’t looking two or three minutes when I felt a strong urge to look in a specific location down one side of a hill.  I walked down the steep decline being careful not to slide and sure enough, my second deer was right there.  I knew God had brought those two deer to me that night and I knew He helped me to shoot and find both animals.  He brought them just as soon as that lawn mower shut off so I would have time to get them loaded up before dark.   
 
But some may ask, “Don’t animals have their own instincts?  Don’t they just do what they were made to do?”  All of God’s creation was created for Him.  He will use any and all of His creation to bring about His will and to bring Him glory.  He will put it on the hearts of people to bring about whatever He wishes and He can and will direct animals and even bugs to people and places.   Genesis 2:19 “Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them.”  In Exodus 8:24 God brought a swarm of flies into Pharaoh’s palace and into the houses of the officials.
 
I wrote most all of this blog the morning following the hunt but I felt it wasn’t finished.  Later that day I realized something that I hadn’t realized before.  When the deer lie down, not only was it looking directly away from me, it also positioned itself perfectly in an opening through the tree branches.  Had the deer chosen a spot a few feet either direction the shot would have been impossible.  The following day I went back to my tree stand to make sure I was correct in my thinking.
 

After I had confirmed the deer had positioned itself perfectly for a shot, I went back to writing this blog.  I added a bit here and there over the next few days but I still felt it was not done.  Then I felt God opened my eyes to something.  I started thinking back to where the deer lie down and thought, “Could there be even more to the story?”  Two days later I headed out to my tree stand to see if I had lost my mind or if God indeed had revealed something more to me.
 
As soon as I walked to the tree that held my hunting stand, I climbed up the stand.  I looked through the opening in the tree limbs to confirm exactly where the deer was when I shot.  I then found a large tree limb on the ground as a reference point and climbed down.  Once at the base of the tree, I paced off the distance.  Using my size 12 hunting boots, I went heel to toe until I came to the exact position of where the deer had lain.  I confirmed my suspicion.  It was exactly 21 steps or 7 yards.  What is the big deal about 7 yards?  If you have read my blogs ‘77 cents is worth so much’ parts 1 and 2, you know God used the number 7 to show me that He was at work.  The importance of the number 7 is shown time and time again in the Bible.  The number 7 represents perfection, completion, and God’s sovereignty. 
 
What are the chances the deer I wanted to shoot lies down perfectly in an opening through the tree branches, facing away from me, exactly 7 yards from my tree?  I have hunted this particular spot for 9 years.  I have never seen a deer lie down in that area of the woods in plain sight of the house.  I have never in my life seen a deer lie down at 5pm while it was eating acorns.  At that time they typically would have been bedded down all day and once up they would be on a mission to get to food and water.               
 
To those living in the world life may appear to be nothing more than a random series of events but this world is not on auto pilot.  Nothing happens outside what God allows to happen.  God never stops working.  He knows every thought of every person “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)