Praise when all seems lost

December 26, 2006

By Gary Oseland

Have you ever lost something of value and wondered if God cared? Maybe this testimony will encourage you.

My wife and I provide hayrides in our community, including rides for numbers of local churches. During the month of October we book these churches for an evening of hayrides, bonfires and fellowship.

On a Friday night we had a group out for the evening. During the final hayride of the night one of the ladies went to the throw a handful of hay at someone. Her diamond wedding ring flew off her finger.

The group spent an hour searching for the proverbial ring in a haystack. After an exhaustive search and pulling all the hay off the wagon they came up with nothing.

The next morning I was out in the barn cleaning and preparing for the Saturday night hayride when I received a call from the husband. He asked if they could come out with a metal detector to search for the ring. I didn’t have much hope for their success. There was more than 80 acres of cornfield to look over in search of one small gold ring. And it was raining.

The couple soon arrived and headed into the fields with their raincoats on and their metal detector in hand. About 2½ hours later they were making the final pass in the cornfield and came back across the road onto our driveway looking very defeated.

They looked like they were about to leave, when the husband sensed the Lord speaking to his heart telling him to “praise and worship Me in this situation.” He took the Lord’s advice quite literally and began to praise and worship the Lord right then and there.

As they approached the back end of their vehicle, the wife went to kick the mud off her shoe in the puddle right behind the vehicle. When she looked down, she saw the ring lying right in the middle of the puddle.

When things are not looking very promising, don’t hesitate to praise and worship the Lord. Even if the answer you’re looking for doesn’t materialize, you can be sure He will intervene and meet your need.

Gary and Debbie Oseland live in Random Lake, Wis., and attend Calvary Assembly of God in West Bend.