Ever had one of those moments where you know it couldn’t have been a coincidence?
It was one of those moments where it was impossible to deny that God was and is working behind the scenes.
Those precious moments are ones that can take your breath away. They can also build your faith for the times when you wait and it seems like nothing is happening or changing.
We want to see God work in visible ways. We want to experience miracles, but we hate to be in a place that requires one. We want safety and security but we also want to accomplish great things for God. It’s impossible to have both.
We are called people of faith so that means God is going to put us in situations that require us to exercise our faith.
If you are going to grow in faith it means you are going to have to grow in your capacity to wait. I think that is why Peter says one of the things we are to add to our faith is perseverance (2 Peter 1:5-7).
Faith is believing that God IS doing something now about your situation. This is different from believing God can or will do something. It’s realizing that God already had a plan and a solution before you ever realized there was a problem.
When you have an undeniable coincidence, it can strengthen your faith while you wait.
The last two Sundays have been so coincidental it was impossible to deny supernatural involvement. It was so brilliant it reminded me of God’s sovereignty over every area of our life.
Here is what happened…
I plan the topics and series that I’m going to speak on a year out. It helps us plan better and takes a tremendous amount of pressure off of me worrying about what I’m going to speak about from week to week. This process also helps me see where there might be gaps or things we haven’t addressed that we need to. It forces me to calendar messages that might not be native to my wheelhouse.
During this planning process I felt God wanted our church to look at some particular promises that Christians have treasured around the world. Promises that God has made for every situation we would face in life.
While I was calendaring each promise to a specific week I had no idea what our church would be going through. But God did. God was going before us.
Two weeks ago was our last Sunday as a portable church. Our entire 13 year existence we have only known what it was like to set-up and tear-down week after week. We’ve never had a place of our own as a home base.
While there is tons of excitement about the future there was also a sense that we were leaving the only thing we have ever known. Any time there is change on a grand scale it can make people uneasy about the future, even if they are excited about it.
Guess which promise I was scheduled to speak on for our last Sunday as a portable church?
Joshua 1:9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
It was a promise that was given during a seismic shift in the history of Israel. Moses had died. Joshua was the new leader and was tasked from moving the nation from being portable to having their own home base. The vast majority had only known life as nomads. Even their “church” was set-up and tore down as they moved from place to place.
In that moment of great transition God comes to Joshua and tells him to be strong and courageous. Why do you have to tell someone to be strong and courageous? Because they aren’t! They’re scared!
The reason God gives Joshua to be strong and courageous was the fact that God would be with him wherever he goes.
The same God that was with him in Egypt and in the wilderness is the same God that would be with him in this new place.
Their strength and courage didn’t come from their smarts, military power, or cash reserves it came from the God who was with them. The God that could part seas, provide every need, and save them from super-powers seeking their destruction. That God was with them wherever they went.
God was encouraging us with the same truth he encouraged another nomadic people transitioning to a place of their own. The same God who met us in a banquet house, a community center, and a school would be with us in this new place.
Wherever we go He would be with us.
Hardly a coincidence.
Guess what the next week’s promise was?
Philippians 4:19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
St. Paul tells us that God is staking His very reputation on providing for His family’s needs. God will provide for all of your needs.
As a church we were experiencing the fulfillment of God’s promise in a very dramatic way. We were sitting in a new location that God provided for us supernaturally. We could see the promise all around us.
It was hard to miss the “coincidences” of the last two weeks. It was hard to miss how God was working in the details even orchestrating exactly what He wanted us to know and remember about Him through this season of transition.
I wish I was smart enough to come up with those two perfect promises for two historic days in the life of our church, but I’m just not that good.
God was working in the details even before I knew what those details were.
We originally thought we would be in our new location over Thanksgiving, then it was pushed back to the first week of January. After we missed that second date we stopped projecting.
But God knew the date and had everything planned out.
Coincidence? Hardly.
Why do I worry so much?
If you are waiting…trust that God is still working even though you don’t see it.
If you just found out about a problem…trust that God already had a solution before you knew there even was an issue.
The next time you experience an undeniable “coincidence” write it down. It will keep you grounded. It will remind you that the same God who showed up then is the same God who will show up now no matter where you are.
