Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Friday January 2 2026
(More Bible Studies Available @ www.marktabata.com)
To Receive These (And Other) Free Bible Studies And Updates Via Email, Contact Mark Tabata @ 606-216-1757 (Text Message) Or hazardhomecoc@gmail.com (Email)
James 1:2-3-My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
When was the last time that you thanked God for fleas?
I am guessing it was probably the last time that I did (which is to say…NEVER).
Let me tell you a real life story about a woman named Corrie Ten Boom.
She was a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust.
In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie discusses many difficult times that she faced. It was especially her faith in the Lord that got her through those horrific ordeals. Listen to what she writes about “Barracks 28,” the ghastly place that she and her sister, Betsie, lived in while at one of those notorious concentration camps.
“Suddenly I sat up, striking my head on the cross-slats above. Something had pinched my leg. “Fleas!” I cried. “Betsie, the place is swarming with them!” We scrambled across the intervening platforms, heads low to avoid another bump, dropped down to the aisle, and edged our way to a patch of light. “Here! And here another one!” I wailed. “Betsie, how can we live in such a place?” (Corrie Ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherrill, The Hiding Place: The Inspiring True Story of Faith and Forgiveness during World War II – 35th Anniversary Edition, 209-210 (Kindle Edition): Bloomington, MN: Chosen Books)
It was at this point that Corrie heard her sister praying.
“Show us. Show us how.” It was said so matter of factly it took me a second to realize she was praying. More and more the distinction between prayer and the rest of life seemed to be vanishing for Betsie. “Corrie!” she said excitedly. “He’s given us the answer! Before we asked, as He always does! In the Bible this morning. Where was it? Read that part again!” I glanced down the long dim aisle to make sure no guard was in sight, then drew the Bible from its pouch. “It was in First Thessalonians,” I said. We were on our third complete reading of the New Testament since leaving Scheveningen. In the feeble light I turned the pages. “Here it is: ‘Comfort the frightened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. . . .’” It seemed written expressly to Ravensbruck. “Go on,” said Betsie. “That wasn’t all.” “Oh yes: ‘. . . to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus—’” “That’s it, Corrie! That’s His answer. ‘Give thanks in all circumstances!’ That’s what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!” I stared at her, then around me at the dark, foul-aired room. “Such as?” I said. “Such as being assigned here together.” I bit my lip. “Oh yes, Lord Jesus!” “Such as what you’re holding in your hands.” I looked down at the Bible. “Yes! Thank You, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank You for all the women, here in this room, who will meet You in these pages.” “Yes,” said Betsie. “Thank You for the very crowding here. Since we’re packed so close, that many more will hear!” She looked at me expectantly. “Corrie!” she prodded. “Oh, all right. Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed, suffocating crowds.” “Thank You,” Betsie went on serenely, “for the fleas and for—” The fleas! This was too much. “Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.” “‘ Give thanks in all circumstances,’” she quoted. “It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.” And so we stood between piers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong.” (Corrie Ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherrill, The Hiding Place: The Inspiring True Story of Faith and Forgiveness during World War II – 35th Anniversary Edition, 209-210 (Kindle Edition): Bloomington, MN: Chosen Books)
Soon, other women began arriving at Barracks 28.
“THEY STARTED ARRIVING soon after 6: 00, the women of Barracks 28, tired, sweat-stained, and dirty from the long forced-labor details. The building, we learned from one of our platform mates, had been designed to hold four hundred. There were now fourteen hundred quartered here with more arriving weekly as concentration camps in Poland, France, Belgium, Austria, as well as Holland were evacuated toward the center of Germany. There were nine of us sharing our particular square, designed for four, and some grumbling as the others discovered they would have to make room for Betsie and me. Eight acrid and overflowing toilets served the entire room; to reach them we had to crawl not only over our own bedmates but over those on the other platforms between us and the closest aisle, always at the risk of adding too much weight to the already sagging slats and crashing down on the people beneath. It happened several times, that first night. From somewhere in the room would come a splintering sound, a shriek, smothered cries. Even when the slats held, the least movement on the upper platforms sent a shower of dust and straw over the sleepers below—followed by a volley of curses. In Barracks 8 most of us had been Dutch. Here there was not even a common language and among exhausted, ill-fed people, quarrels erupted constantly. There was one raging now as the women sleeping nearest the windows slammed them shut against the cold. At once scores of voices demanded that they be raised again. Brawls were starting all up and down that side of the room; we heard scuffling, slaps, sobs. In the dark I felt Betsie’s hands clasp mine. “Lord Jesus,” she said aloud, “send Your peace into this room. There has been too little praying here. The very walls know it. But where You come, Lord, the spirit of strife cannot exist. . . .” The change was gradual, but distinct. One by one the angry sounds let up.” (Corrie Ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherrill, The Hiding Place: The Inspiring True Story of Faith and Forgiveness during World War II – 35th Anniversary Edition, 209-210 (Kindle Edition): Bloomington, MN: Chosen Books)
Before long, people were able to see the Lord working in Barracks 28. In the midst of hopelessness and despair, the Lord began to bring peace and hope through His precious Word.
“Back at the barracks we formed yet another line—would there never be an end to columns and waits?—to receive our ladle of turnip soup in the center room. Then, as quickly as we could for the press of people, Betsie and I made our way to the rear of the dormitory room where we held our worship “service.” Around our own platform area there was not enough light to read the Bible, but back here a small lightbulb cast a wan yellow circle on the wall, and here an ever larger group of women gathered. They were services like no others, these times in Barracks 28. A single meeting might include a recital of the Magnificat in Latin by a group of Roman Catholics, a whispered hymn by some Lutherans, and a sotto-voce chant by Eastern Orthodox women. With each moment the crowd around us would swell, packing the nearby platforms, hanging over the edges, until the high structures groaned and swayed. At last either Betsie or I would open the Bible. Because only the Hollanders could understand the Dutch text, we would translate aloud in German. And then we would hear the life-giving words passed back along the aisles in French, Polish, Russian, Czech, back into Dutch. They were little previews of heaven, these evenings beneath the lightbulb. I would think of Haarlem, each substantial church set behind its wrought-iron fence and its barrier of doctrine. And I would know again that in darkness God’s truth shines most clear. At first Betsie and I called these meetings with great timidity. But as night after night went by and no guard ever came near us, we grew bolder. So many now wanted to join us that we held a second service after evening roll call. There on the Lagerstrasse we were under rigid surveillance, guards in their warm wool capes marching constantly up and down. It was the same in the center room of the barracks: half a dozen guards or camp police always present. Yet in the large dormitory room there was almost no supervision at all. We did not understand it.” (Corrie Ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherrill, The Hiding Place: The Inspiring True Story of Faith and Forgiveness during World War II – 35th Anniversary Edition, 212-213 (Kindle Edition): Bloomington, MN: Chosen Books)
In the midst of this “Hell on Earth,” the light of Heaven shone down through that gloom to bring encouragement and joy. Isn’t that just like our God?! The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it! The mighty God always brings good, even in the midst of the deepest evil!
It was not long after these events that Corrie and her sister discovered the blessing of the fleas.
““You know we’ve never understood why we had so much freedom in the big room,” she said. “Well—I’ve found out.” That afternoon, she said, there’d been confusion in her knitting group about sock sizes and they’d asked the supervisor to come and settle it. “But she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t step through the door and neither would the guards. And you know why?” Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice: “Because of the fleas! That’s what she said, ‘That place is crawling with fleas!’” My mind rushed back to our first hour in this place. I remembered Betsie’s bowed head, remembered her thanks to God for creatures I could see no use for.” (Corrie Ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherrill, The Hiding Place: The Inspiring True Story of Faith and Forgiveness during World War II – 35th Anniversary Edition, 220 (Kindle Edition): Bloomington, MN: Chosen Books)
God worked through those fleas to allow His good Word to be shared with the brokenhearted souls who needed the assurance of His love.
Stop and let this sink in.
Corrie and Betsie gave thanks to God for the hardships of the fleas, even before they knew how God would use them for good.
Isn’t that kind of the lesson in giving God thanks when we fall into various trials (James 1:2-3)? It is in trusting that God will bring forth good in ways beyond what we can fully understand right now.
Romans 5:1-4-Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
James says that we can choose to face the hardships of life, trusting that God has a good reason for allowing them. The Prophets and Apostles were armed with that conviction, and they witnessed the love, greatness, and power of God in astonishing ways (just as Corrie Ten Boom and her sister did).
Will we choose to do the same?
Will we give thanks to God for the fleas in our lives?
What difficult and heartbreaking circumstances have you been facing on your journey that you need to give God thanks for?
Will you give thanks to God and trust Him right now for the good that He will bring through your heartbreak, even if you don’t see His goodness in your situation right now?
Accept our thanks, O Lord, even for our trials. Please continue to open our eyes. We trust You, and we praise You. Amen.
Leave a Reply