Are you grateful? – Day 18
Thankful that God provides
Itekisi yeBhayibhile
1 KAPETROS 5
KWABASEFILIPI 4
It was early in December 2011, and I was still involved with the morning drive show on Radio Tygerberg 104fm. A few of our colleagues went shark cage diving in Gansbaai that morning and during the show, we phoned them to find out what they were experiencing on the boat. On the spur of the moment, we organised two tickets to give away to listeners who also wanted to go shark cage diving.
To qualify for this prestigious prize, listeners had to SMS the correct answer to a simple question to our SMS line in the studio. Within seconds, we literally had hundreds of text messages flooding in. Riaan was our winner and we phoned him. He sounded stunned and excited at the same time as we informed him of his prize.
That afternoon, Riaan visited the radio station to share his testimony. He told us that his 12-year-old son had been begging him for months to go shark cage diving in Gansbaai. Riaan decided to use his annual bonus from work to pay for this trip at the end of December. Then came the shock! Due to economic pressure, the company Riaan worked for could not pay out any bonuses. Suddenly, Riaan did not know how he was going to keep his promise to his son.
The result was that Riaan had no way to make this promise a reality as he didn’t have the extra income. He, therefore, prayed about it and decided to ask God for a miracle. He then left the situation in God’s hands. Without our prior knowledge of the situation, God led us through his Holy Spirit that morning to choose Riaan’s SMS from the hundreds of others. Riaan’s words at the end of the story touched me especially when he said: “Now I can tell my son that it is not just a gift from me, his earthly father, but from our Heavenly Father, too.”
Do you also, like Riaan, need a breakthrough that only God can provide? Listen to the words in 1 Peter 5:7: “Give all your worries to Him because He cares for you.” In Philippians 4:19-20 we read: “And my God will give you everything you need because of His great riches in Christ Jesus. Now may our God and Father be honoured forever.”
