LISTEN AND OBEY!

God can change anybody, anytime, anywhere, and I think God has a sense of humor in doing what He does in the lives of people.

I attended the men’s “What’s at Stake” dinner recently. A friend of mine was the speaker. I learned things about him I never knew. He is an example of what God can do.

When he was six years old, his mom and dad divorced. His dad had custody, and his mother had visiting rights. She illegally took him to Pensacola where they lived as homeless people for a few years. One day, the little boy fell in the water and was miraculously saved by a man who dove in after him.

The father found the location of his son and brought him back to the Montgomery area. The young boy had not been to school. Later, he got involved with the wrong group and was drinking. When he was 19, his grandaddy hired a lady to help him study and get his GED. The teenager went to meet the lady. They were married five weeks later. His teacher became his wife! They have now been married 40 years. Would anybody had given that marriage a chance – other than God?

His life became a story of working hard, trusting God, becoming a Christian, making mistakes, but all the time learning the power of what God can do. He said, “I listened to God – and I always followed God.”

That’s a formula for success – listen to God, and then follow Him. It carried him to several different cities and two or three different endeavors in business. God led him to customizing vans, working on automobiles, and eventually starting a restaurant. He had never worked in a restaurant before.

He always knew it was important to follow God. He didn’t understand where God was leading him, but he followed. Today, he still doesn’t have a formal education, but he always believed that God could make something out of him. He tells every young person to be open to what God could do with them.

Because he wanted to improve conditions in Montgomery County, he decided to run for political office and get something done. God has a sense of humor. He was elected as a County Commissioner, where he served faithfully, and then he ran for the Alabama State Legislature and was elected in 2014!

When he was a teenager, he got drunk, borrowed a car, and crashed it into the Governor’s Mansion. Today, he is chairman of a couple of super important Alabama legislative committees. God does have a sense of humor!

His restaurant and farmer’s market is known as “Sweet Creek” on the Troy Highway and helps over 100 young people with various jobs supplying eggs, vegetables, etc. for his restaurant.

I, like most other people, knew nothing of the story of Reed Ingram. He and his wife have two wonderful sons and two grandchildren. He is just a humble man who listens to God and follows Him. God has put him in important places! We need more leaders like him.

Everyone reading this probably has more education than Reed Ingram. God can do in your life what he did in Reed’s life. Read Genesis 12:1-4; Jeremiah 29:11; Ephesians 1:13-16; Ecclesiastes 5:1-5.

Are you willing to listen – and obey?