Too Coincidental To Be Coincidence

Guest Post from Matt Mitchell

 

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Jeremiah 33:3

 

To say 2020 has been a difficult year would be an understatement. Based on my natural circumstances, it probably wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it the worst year of my life. I suspect anyone reading this likely can relate.

 

But an interesting thing happened this year. My life got so bad that I essentially had two choices: I could be angry with God, or I could lean into Him with all my might. I chose the latter, and in hindsight I may look back at this year as the best of my life because where I ended up will have made all the difference.

 

As someone who grew up in church and identified as a Christian since childhood, I have to admit my relationship with God wasn’t very personal. 2020 is the year I really got to know Him.

 

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

-C.S.Lewis

               

 

Recently, my friend Denny sent out a request for accounts of how we personally encounter God. That got me thinking – how do we encounter God? How do I encounter God? Throughout my life I’ve heard people say things like “God spoke to me.” I have to admit that sometimes my immediate thought is “how? Did you hear a voice?”

 

I’ve often wondered how this works, because I didn’t believe I had ever really experienced it. I believe the reality is that God speaks to us in a variety of ways. His primary means of communication is His written word, and when we seek Him by immersing ourselves in scripture, He reveals His will to us.

 

Over the past several months as it appeared my life was unraveling, I’ve sought Him in every way I could think of, and as a result He has revealed Himself to me. The day before I met Denny for the first time, I woke up with the words “refining fire” in my head.

 

For some reason I found myself thinking of a fire burning off impurities. This is NOT something about which I would normally be thinking. I had no way of explaining where this was coming from. Later in the day, I started searching online for anything biblical to which it may be related and I found some websites and blogs that applied to my situation. “That seems pretty neat” I thought to myself, but I wasn’t really sure what to make of it at that point.

 

The next day, as I sat with Denny for the first time and we had been talking for about 15 minutes or so, he just started talking about experiencing the refining fire in a crucible. I couldn’t believe it. It’s continued to be a theme that springs up in things that I read and things that people share with me when I least expect it.

 

 

See, I have refined you, though not as silver;

I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

-Isaiah 48:10

 

 

But I also believe He communicates with us in a much more personal way.

 

For me, sometimes it can be song I hear on the radio. Do I believe that He is in the studio playing DJ especially for me? No; that would be narcissistic!

 

But I do believe He puts me in certain situations at certain times that allow me to hear things I am intended to hear or see – because He is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. And He is ALWAYS with me.

 

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“There are roughly 7.5 billion people on earth. There are 196 countries and approximately 6500 spoken languages. But God doesn’t speak 6500 languages—He speaks 7.5 billion. God speaks YOUR language. He speaks MY language. The Lord knows every method possible of reaching every person on earth. He knows what catches your attention. He knows how to reach you in the best and in the very worst of times. Because of this, the only way we cannot hear what He has to say is if we willingly ignore, or alter, what He says.”       

                                from The Way Home by Lindsey Doss

 

 

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A few Sundays ago, I was watching my normal weekend church service. It was online, but it was one of those times when it was so powerful, I felt like the pastor was talking directly to me.

At the end, I felt strongly that I was one of the people he was calling to prayer, so I followed the instructions to reach out. Immediately one of the pastors from the church called me on the phone and after a brief explanation of my circumstances, he began to pray for me.

 

WHILE we were praying, I received a text message from a friend with a passage he believed was meant for me. Never in my life have I received an immediate answer to prayer as I did in that moment.

 

I’ve picked you. I haven’t dropped you. Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you…I, your GOD, have a firm grip on you and I’m not letting go. I’m telling you, ‘Don’t panic. I’m right here to help you.’

(from Isaiah 41, The Message translation)

 

But hey, it’s just a coincidence-right?

 

 

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A big thank you Matt for sharing this post on my blog.  

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