{"id":13042,"date":"2020-08-28T05:15:15","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T10:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=13042"},"modified":"2020-08-28T05:15:21","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T10:15:21","slug":"to-catch-a-thief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=13042","title":{"rendered":"To Catch a Thief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

That was the title of a 50s movie starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelley. Honestly, I\u2019m not THAT old to remember it, but I do remember the TV series in the late 60s and early 70s called \u201cIt Takes a Thief\u201d with Robert Wagner. The premise of the movie and the TV series was about a thief who stole to finance his sophisticated playboy lifestyle. He did quite well at it until he was caught, then was pardoned because he aided the government by catching thieves for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m using \u201cTo Catch a Thief\u201d, as a way to describe how to catch the enemy of our souls who \u201ccomes to kill us, steal from us and destroy us \u201d (John 10:10). It\u2019s his mode of operation. But, when we catch him, he won\u2019t get pardoned. He will have to pay us back seven-fold (restitution). Proverbs 6:31 says \u201cIf a thief is caught, he must pay seven-fold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.\u201d And then there’s the story of Job who lost everything — family, home, his wealth\u2026.but in the end, he received double for his trouble. “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.” (Job 42:10)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never, EVER think for a minute that God is a thief. He is quite the opposite. “He is the GIVER of every good and perfect gift”. (James 1:17) I know what it is to be stolen from and I also know what it is to receive the blessings of what came back to us because we trusted that God would ensure the enemy repaid us. Maybe it didn\u2019t come back the same as it was before \u2013 it was always better. Here\u2019s a recent case-in-point:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few months ago, my grandson’s car was stolen.Three weeks later, the car was found, stripped completely of all usable parts. But that wasn\u2019t the most hurtful part. It was what was in the trunk of the car that mattered most. My husband, Payton\u2019s Papa, was a master angler. Oh how he loved to fish. Over time, he collected a lot of fishing gear, tackle, rods, vest, and many other tools-of-the-trade. When Papa passed on, because Payton was the “grand” who most loved fishing, I passed on Papa\u2019s fishing treasures to him. Because Payton would stop randomly at a pond, lake or river to fish, he kept all Papa\u2019s fishing gear in the trunk of his car. The enemy stole it all. Though I bought some of the gear that was lost for birthday gifts for Payton and his mom (who, by the way, is equally the fisher-woman as the guys), it wasn\u2019t at all back to the original bounty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, Payton, last week, knowing he and his family were heading to Tennessee’s Smokey Mountains for two weeks to fish, he went on the NextDoor app and shared his story and his loss. He expressed how he would sure appreciate anyone that has fishing equipment and no longer use it, to let him know. In a matter of minutes, he had over 17 replies of \u201cneighbors\u201d expressing their condolences, among which were four men who, altogether, presented Payton with “above and beyond” more fishing equipment than he could have imagined. When I talked to Payton, yesterday, and confirmed what I\u2019m telling you, he said he had received way more than a seven-fold return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And God has plans to bless your life with so much more, too! But, the enemy wants you to doubt God. Remember \u201cdoubting\u201d Thomas? But, Jesus appeared to Thomas and said, \u201cStop doubting and believe.\u201d (John 20:27). When the devil tempts you to doubt God, don\u2019t let your circumstances determine your God. Let your God determine your circumstances. Don\u2019t let what the enemy has stolen from you keep you from remembering that enemy MUST repay you 7-fold….or, like Job, at least “double” for your trouble. Our God is an “exceeding abundant” God. Let’s live with that expectancy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That was the title of a 50s movie starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelley. Honestly, I\u2019m not THAT old to remember it, but I do remember the TV series in the late 60s and early 70s called \u201cIt Takes a Thief\u201d with Robert Wagner. The premise of the movie and the TV series was about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18412,18410,18411,18409,18408],"tags":[5995,1210,1769,18401,40,18405,18402,18400,18403,18406,18404,13952,18407],"class_list":["post-13042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-double-for-your-trouble","category-kill-steal-and-destroy","category-seven-fold","category-thief","category-to-catch-a-thief","tag-believe","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-double-for-trouble","tag-inspiration","tag-job-4210","tag-john-2027","tag-kill-steal-and-destroy","tag-restored-wealth","tag-seven-fold-return","tag-stop-doubting","tag-thief","tag-to-catch-a-thief"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13042"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13050,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13042\/revisions\/13050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}