Monday, June 16, 2008

Responding to God-Incidence

Some events occur and the coincidence of it is so unbelievable that it takes greater faith to consider it a coincidence than it does to believe that it is a God incident. I once was trying to find someone's apartment who had an emergency need. My prayer was to find this person quickly and without a conflict with his father who was drunk and in the home. I had never been to his apartment. When a friend of mine and I went to retrieve our friend who was in trouble, we could not find the apartment number he had given us. I began to feel that perhaps my prayers were unheard. I rapidly decided that we shouldn't waste time looking for the apartment. We should just ask someone where it was. My friend who was driving ran upto a random apartment. He came out with our friend. We had coincidentally gone to an apartment he had fled to. The apartment number we had written down did not exist. Coincidence? I don't think so.

How should we respond when a God-incidence occurs?--A chance phone call or acquaintance comes at just the right time of our need, our funds run dry and a check for just the right amount appears unanticipated, etc. I often think of Romans 1:21 "Though they knew God, they neither honored God or gave thanks so he gave them over to futile thinking and the darkness of their minds." I have learned that my immediate response to a God-incidence needs to be to recognize it as a gift from God and give thanks. Give credit where credit is due.

The second thing that I seek to do is to honor God for the gift. We honor God by being obedient. Often times within the event there is some calling. There is a need for us to act. I find that when we are either thankful and/or obedient with what is given, then God seems to unfold the gift even further.

We also can honor a gift by telling others the story of what God has done. Share your story. In the process you may bless someone else. You may become an inspiring God-incident for another person.

Blessings to you as you seek to appreciate and honor all that God does in your life.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love God-incidences - His daily reminder that He's interested in every single part of our lives, if we're just prepared to take notice!

I own a blog about God-incidences which you'll probably see listed in my profile.

Thanks for sharing.

mjdavid said...

The neat thing about this post on god-incidences is I am reading them and actually hearing you speak as I read. This made me really want to take more notice of his presence around me.

I have been visting your blog daily. What a wonderful way to share!