A month or so ago my brother-in-law was over and I was helping him with a video for his invention. In return he was helping me to replace some damage baseboard molding in my kitchen. We were out in my garage sawing some pieces of molding when we heard my wife scream in the backyard. I went running around the house to her location.

My wife had been doing some gardening and needed to get some items out of a storage bin that we kept on the patio. She was digging through the bin when she horrifyingly spied the body of what she knew immediately to be a rat. Hence her screams. Evidently the rodent got into the bin because it was left a jar open and there was bird seed in there that it was feeding on so it liked it there.

Unsure how to approach getting the rat out of there, I decided to tip the bin over and let it walk out of there on its own when it was ready. The next day I checked the overturned bin and saw that it was gone. I thought that the rat had left the area but I was naive.

Weeks later I awoke in the middle of the night to take my dog out to do its business. Coming down the stairs I heard an awful sounds. I thought someone was trying to break into the house. Gathering my courage I proceeded down the stairs and to the front door. I then realized it was coming from the front door but from within the walls. I then knew we had a rodent problem.

Coincidently, after my dog died I cleaned up the area where it had eaten and noticed mice droppings. Not thinking of the rat in the outside bin I thought maybe those mice were still around and making themselves known. At least that was what I was hoping.

The next day I was out in our backyard doing to work and notice gnawings on wooden slats on the crawl space vents. Putting two and two together I then realized the rat that was in the outside bin did not go away but had gotten into the house through the crawl space vent. I immediately looked up an exterminator and called but this was on the weekend when they were not open.

The following Monday morning the exterminator came out laid some traps inside and out. They patched up the holes that were in our vents and told us they would come out periodically to catch on the traps.

Week after week the rat evaded the traps. Then finally we discovered that the rat had moved into our garage and found some grass seeds that it was feeding on. Apparently rats do not mind eating where they poop because there were thousands of rat poop pellets mixed in with grass seed behind our garage work bench. I cleaned that up and the exterminator set new traps in the garage.

The very next morning I checked the traps and then saw that the rat had met its doom. With no easy source of food the rat went looking and found some but to his demise.

The rats death was an answer to prayer. The night before it died and the day I clean where it was eating in the garage I prayed long and hard that the Lord would send His angels to kill it. Sure enough the Lord came through.

You can believe either it was the lack of an easy food source or that it was the Lord’s direction that led to the rat being killed by a trap. I believe it was both. The Lord takes action when we take action.

When we get up and step out for the Lord then the Lord is with us and makes things happen. This was true when the Israelites went to battle with their enemies. So long as the Israelites were not fearful and obeyed the Lord when going into battle then the Lord God went ahead of them and made them victorious. God could have defeated the Israelite enemies on His own, but He wanted the Israelites to do some work for their reward. Originally God was going to remove their enemies for them but the Israelites doubted the Lord and that plan was nixed.

With over a dozen traps set that rat should have been snared within a weeks time, but three weeks passed. Until I went to do something about the rat and beseeched Lord it was not caught. After I did the rat was caught. I had prayed previous nights that the rat would be caught but I did not do anything to help with catching it.

Much the same, we can pray to God to give us wisdom but if we do not us it then we are not truly wise. We can ask the Lord for a good job but if we do not look for a job then we will not find one. We must act and seek the Lord’s hand in our lives as we act out. We cannot be lazy and expect the Lord to pamper us. That is not how the Lord wants us to live. We must be active participants in working for the kingdom of Heaven to be expanded. The Lord can do everything on His own and really needs no one else to help. God wants our company and He loves us.

Be an active participant in God’s kingdom. Go seek kill the destructive rats in your life and serve Him to the fullest. God will make you successful in all that you do in His name.