My Toilet Bowl Miracle
It thrills and amazes me to realize: God loves us so much, Jesus is constantly interceding for us! Are you struggling in a certain area? At times does discouragement almost overwhelm you? I’m so glad Jesus wants to free us completely and has the power to do that!
Therefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25.
After I gave my life to Jesus, I realized I had a temper problem. Before that I excused and justified it. After all, I never stayed mad long. And, I reasoned, it’s a good, healthy release not to keep things pent up inside. I even thought anger was a useful tool to get people to cooperate with me. Now doesn’t that sound nicer than the truth: I used anger to try to manipulate and control people! Some people don’t want to be freed from their temper and rage because they found it useful to scare and intimidate people. Now that’s real food for thought!
I can remember when I first saw a girl in my high school class use an evil, menacing stare to get someone to do what she wanted. I thought, “Wow, I’d like to be able to do that!” I didn’t know it, but that opened the door and gave Satan access to that area. So for years I would explode when upset and then almost immediately be nice again and think nothing of it.
But soon after I became a Christian, God started convicting me with scriptures that made me squirm! I’ve put them at the end of this article.
Ouch! Over a period of time, as I meditated on those scriptures, first I was uncomfortable, then conviction came, then I felt sorrow as I struggled, and then came remorse, frustration, and discouragement.
I tried to resist getting angry but I kept failing. I unsuccessfully tried to control it. Unknowingly, I was resisting in my own power. God showed me I was to submit myself to God first. James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. So when the temptation came to get angry, I would cry out to God for help and think of Him inside me and allow the Holy Spirit to resist through me for me. I was also meditating on scriptures about anger and proper speaking. And I was quoting scriptures out loud when tempted. So I didn’t get mad as often, but it was still a struggle.
Then early in my marriage to Richard came a most memorable event. He would take a bath and leave the ring in the tub for me to clean. That ring in the tub became a constant irritant to me! How I hated to see another new ring everyday to clean. One busy day it especially irked me. While I was using cleanser to scrub it, I was grumbling inside. “He should be more considerate. He’s home more than I am. Look how hard and long I work at the prison…” Ooops! I reminded myself that I had asked God for a servant’s heart and should embrace this as an opportunity to grow. My attitude was better as I put a bowl under the tub faucet. I was going to fill it with water to splash the suds and ring away as I usually did. At least that was my plan!
Richard had forgotten to push the lever down after his showering off, and water came down on my head from the shower instead of the faucet down below where I expected! Boy, did I see red!!! I was furious! I threw the bowl into the tub and stomped out of the bathroom, past Richard in the next room, stormed into another room, and slammed the door! I felt heat turn my face red as rage started to boil up wanting to explode!
“No, I’m not going to explode; he didn’t do it on purpose,” I thought.
Another voice hissed in my mind, “Oh he should have known better. He’s too lazy to clean it himself.”
“He means well; he’s busy with other things and has other things on his mind,” I said in his defense.
“He’s not considerate at all. Look how hard you work! It was stupid of him to leave the lever up!”
On and on the thoughts came as fast as I cast them down. I felt the rage try to come up, and I’d cry out to God and stuff it down. I don’t remember how many minutes I battled.
Finally I cried out loudly with every ounce of my being, “These thoughts aren’t mine! They’re not God’s! They’re the devil’s! Help me, Jesus, I don’t want to explode!”
Suddenly I was engulfed with the most beautiful peace, and every bit of anger left quick as a flash! I had received a deliverance! And that rage has never returned.
I happily went to Richard and told him of my struggle and victory. “Good for you, Honey!” We hugged and he went outside to work on my car.
I was singing as I started to clean the toilet bowl. At the water line there was a black spot where the porcelain had worn off. Every time I walked into the bathroom, I saw that horrible black spot in the toilet that looked like you-know-what! But this time as I applied the brush to that spot, it suddenly disappeared! Instantly the thought came, “It’s a miracle!” But I reasoned it must have been a spot, and after all this time it finally flaked off. Our carnal mind always argues against the supernatural things of God. I looked and looked and could find no trace of any black specks in the toilet bowl!
“Is this You doing a miracle for me, God?!” I whispered, stunned.
I felt a “yes” inside.
“But why?! I never even asked You to remove it!”
“To show you I love you. I know how hard it was for you to resist that anger. I’m so pleased with you!”
I was in a daze as I took the trash out and walked past Richard to dump it in the bin outside. Still awestruck, I decided to share this amazing event with him. He kept his head under the car hood as I said, “Richard, you know that black mark in the toilet bowl…God…God HEALED it!”
“Yes, God is good,” he said and kept on working on the car.
I started to go inside the house but returned to tell him again. He must not have understood me.
“Oh, Honey, I’m so used to God doing amazing miracles, I forgot you aren’t. While you were in the house, God told me to pray in tongues because He wanted to do a miracle for you. As I prayed, God gave me an open vision of the toilet bowl with the black mark. As I continued to pray, I saw an upright brush swish that black mark away…just like the toilet bowl commercial; so I wasn’t surprised when you came out and told me.”
How sweet and loving our wonderful God is! Even the smallest concern of ours is important to Him! He knows every struggle we have, and just wants us to yield our struggles to Him, focus on Him and His Word, and allow Him to deliver us. Reading His Word changes our desires to His desires, and then He gives us the enablement.
Here’s the scriptures that prepared my heart so that I could be set free from the anger spirit:
Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirs up strife: but love covers all sins.
Prov 12:16 A fool’s wrath is presently known: but a prudent man covers shame.
Prov 13:3 He that keeps his mouth keeps his life: but he that opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
Prov 14:29 He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalts folly.