Snake-bit +

Let all that I am praise the Lord.
Psalm 104:1 NLT
 
One of the guys in our office had a bad week. It didn’t seem to matter what he touched, it went awry. There was no getting around it. He referred to it as being “snake bit;” in other words, his life had been poisoned. It was like listening to a country song. Chuckling with him at his lament and without being serious, I made a sign of a cross in front of him and told him it was fixed… 
 
I missed it. It was an opportunity to point him toward the Lord and instead, I went for the laugh. My heart convicted me, but I’d already missed the moment. ‘Please, God,’ I prayed silently, ‘Give me another opportunity with him. I’ll do better.’ 
 
The next morning, as he walked by my desk on the way to his office, he remarked, “It didn’t work.” 
 
“What didn’t work?”
 
He imitated the sign of a cross and kept walking. Following him into his office, he said, “Your prayer doesn’t work.” Hmmmm, there it was - my ‘nother opportunity. I confessed to him that I’d only been joking the day before and I was sorry for it. I also told him that I’d asked God for another opportunity to pray with him about his “snake-bit” condition. He kind of chuckled about that, but then I looked him in the eye and said, “I really would like to pray for God to intervene for you and change this situation, if that’s okay.” So he sat down and I put my hand on his shoulder, and asked God to have mercy and turn around the series of misfortunate events in his life. I also asked God to prove to my co-worker that He cared for the details of his life and ended with the promise that we would be careful to give Him the praise for a good report, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
 
The next morning, as he walked by my desk on the way to his office, he remarked, “It worked.” He was amazed and was quite animated in his tale of no more snake bite - like what happens when you play the country song backward - everything was good. 

Throughout the day as others stopped by looking for the next chapter of his snake-bit adventure, he was at first, a little reticent to acknowledge God’s hand in the turn-around of his situation. So I reminded him that when we prayed, I had told God we would give Him the praise. When he started to make dissenting noises, I shrugged my shoulder and replied, “No problem. I’ll just let God know He’s not obliged to ward off any more snake bite since you don’t want to give Him the credit.”  For the rest of the day, he was a living epistle for 1st Chronicles 16:9, Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. 
 
Prayer:
 
Father,
          You are so good to us. Let us ever be mindful of Your love toward us so that we always give You the praise. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen