Alan calmly awoke to the sound of Positive Hits PER radio. As he climbed out of bed, a heavy silence suddenly hung in the air. The electricity had gone off!
Screeeeech! Screeeech! The shrill screech penetrated the silence. Not one, not two, but 6 smoke alarms screeched a warning that the power was off! Startled awake, I immediately scurried out of bed to help Alan silence the alarms. Hurriedly he got the ladder and carried it from place to place as we emptied the smoke alarms of their batteries. (We really need to figure out how to avoid this!)
Ahhh. Now, blissfully quiet, we had to think about getting ready for worship service in the dark. I shook my head and laughed to myself. What else could I do? Of all days to have this happen, it was the day I was to speak at worship service. On a day when I needed to be there early and calm, cool and collected, the electricity goes out! Being startled awake by the piercing screech of the smoke alarms certainly shook me up – literally. I was a little shaky all morning long as I prayed and pushed ahead.
After getting as put together as we were going to be, we finally made it to the garage.
Opps! No power to open the garage door!
Humm! We haven’t manually opened the door before. I guess without electric power we were going to need arm power. Then – Lights! Power! We never had to touch the door because the power came back on, just in time!
Coincidence or God?
What is a coincidence?
Oxford dictionary defines it as “a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.”
Do you believe in coincidences?
Let’s look at some true life-saving incidents. Were these lives saved by coincidences, fate, accidents or intervention by God? You decide.
PATTI AUSTIN
United Flight 93, from Boston to San Francisco, was hijacked on September 11, 2001 and crashed in Pennsylvania killing all aboard.
Originally booked on that flight was Patti Austin, Grammy award winning singer. “However, she had to change the flight to a day earlier because her mother had a stroke. “That’s what saved my life,” Austin recalls. Austin later said: “I felt that my life had been saved for some specific reason.” “I have yet to figure that out, but I do a lot of charity work now, which I was doing before, but I do a lot more.”1
ANTONIS MAVROPOULUS
On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302 took off from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Only minutes into the flight, it crashed killing all 157 aboard. Antonis Mavropoulus was to be aboard that flight. Arriving at the gate late, he could see the passengers boarding, but he was not allowed to board due to his late arrival. 2
AT the time of the crash, this chemical engineer from Greece presided over the International Solid Waste Association. He continues to work as a proponent for cleaning up our environment.
VIOLET JESSOP
Argentinian Violet Jessop lived from 1887-1971. As a child she survived a fatal illness. As a young woman, she became the sole financial support for her widowed mother and five siblings. But what made her famous, was this stewardess and nurse survived three shipwrecks; Titanic, Britannic and Olympic.
In 1911, she was aboard the Olympic, when it hit a war ship. Although damaged, the ship made it back to port. Then in 1912, she had the devastating experience of working on the “unsinkable” Titanic when it sunk. Four years later as a British Red Cross nurse, she was on the Britannic, a WW1 hospital ship. It struck a mine and sank in the Aegean. 3
What did you decide?
Were these life-saving incidents accidents, fate, coincidences or the intervention of God?
Still unsure? Let’s delve a little deeper.
Have any of these things happened to you or someone you know?
- Delays, late arrivals or interrupted plans that prevented you from being a part of a major catastrophe?
- Did you ever find unexpected money in your coat pocket or get a check in the mail, just when you needed it?
- What about someone providing food just when you had an empty pantry and empty bank account?
- How about having a test show a medical problem only to have the test repeated and find nothing wrong?
- Was there ever a timely phone call from someone just at the moment you needed a friend?
These are just samples of the things that God does every day.
Did any of those things sound familiar? Do you see God working?
God does not just intervene in life-saving incidents. He intervenes in things as simple as the power coming on for us so that we did not have to wrestle with our garage door.
You see the story of the garage door actually happened to us just the other week. God knew that wrestling with the garage door would eat up more time, energy and certainly not calm my shaky hands. He knew we needed His intervention. He did not cause the electricity to go out, but I certainly believe He intervened and turned it back on- just when we needed it.
Numerous little things happen throughout our lives. Things that happen by the hand of God. What seems insignificant or coincidental to us may actually be ordered by God to achieve His will and purpose. Recognizing these things as the hand of God can help build our faith. When we see God working in the little things, it grows our faith in Him to intervene in the bigger things.
Sometimes we see the direct result of our prayers,
and sometimes we will see things we haven’t even prayed about.
“Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. Matthew 6:8
Because God loves us, every detail of our lives is important to Him and He knows them all.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. Luke 12:7
(Some people’s hair is easier to count than others)
God has a plan.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. Psalm 139:16
God is in control.
The Lord has established His throne in heaven,
And His kingdom rules over all. Psalm 103:19
Still unsure about coincidences? What do you think of two of the examples from the Bible?
Moses led the Israelites to freedom from Egyptian slavery. Was it a coincidence that when Hebrew babies were being killed, baby Moses was found at the river by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised as her son? (Exodus 1:22, 2:1-8, 12:31-42)
Joseph was made governor by the king and saved Egypt as well as other countries from starvation. Was it a coincidence that Joseph was put in a cell with the butler who later brought Joseph to the kings’ attention? (Genesis 41)
Faith doesn’t believe in coincidences.
Faith believes in the truth of God’s Word.
Faith believes that God will answer, He will provide, He will intervene.
Why?
Because of His great love for us, (Ephesians 2:4).
REFLECTION
In hindsight, could you have considered something a coincidence that was the actually God’s intervention in your life?
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, as I write Psalm 103:19 and say it out loud, open up our eyes to see your hand at work each day – even in the little things.
GROW YOUR FAITH BY LOOKING FOR GOD’S INTERVENTION IN YOUR DAILY LIFE
Please let me know if my blog has been helpful.
You can connect with me on my Facebook page or by email through this website.
Thanks so much!
May your day be filled with love and laughter!
For information on making Jesus Christ your Savior, email me or visit, https://www.peacewithgod.net/
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1 listverse.com, 10 Famous People Who Avoided Death on 9/11 by Patrick Weidinger
2 theguardian.com, ‘Saved by luck’: the passenger who just missed flight ET302 | Ethiopian Airlines crash by Helena Smith
3 Wikipedia
Ship photo by S. Hermann & F. Richter, pixabay
Cat photo by imarksm, pixabay
Baby photo by Vitolda Klein, unsplash
