Again Today!

I should be used to this by now, but every time the Lord does this it affects me deeply.

There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible. And time and time again the Lord does this.

I have written devotionals and articles and I post one of each every day. And time and time again I will read or hear during that same day the Scripture I posted in the morning. I"ll "stumble upon it" in some book I'm reading, or hear it in a video I'm listening to - the ways are myriad, but it happens so very frequently that in some way or other - I'll see or hear today - the very Scripture I posted earlier in the morning.

Today I picked up my Bible and just started reading from where I left off yesterday and there it was - my reading was the very Scripture I scheduled last night to post this morning. It just boggles my mind.

I look up to God every time and I say, "I don't know how you do this!" There was one chance in 1,189 that today my reading would fall on the very Scripture I posted earlier. One chance in 1,189 - how can it be? And if that weren't enough - it happens frequently, so the odds are exponentially higher.

I remember one time I had posted an article based on a Scripture in the Book of Numbers, one of the most obscure Books in the Bible. I could hardly believe it when later on I heard that same Scripture referenced in a video I was watching. I mean - it's one thing to hear during the day a reference to a passage in Psalms that I might have posted that day, but out of the Book of Numbers??? I was just gobsmacked! The odds of that are nearly impossible.

To me, that is absolute proof of God - this feedback happening again and again gets to the point where it's just not statistically possible. It arouses a deep and abiding appreciation of the involvement of the Lord in my daily life.

Let me go on, now that I'm writing. This happened again today, but it happened after I had spent time bringing thanksgiving to God for one thing I've noticed about him, one thing the Spirit of God has been showing me - and that is that every single story in my life, and there are many, was INITIATED by God himself. The Lord took me back through every story, starting in my teenage years, and he showed me that not one single story was the result of something I did. Every single story happened unexpectedly, by surprise. If I hadn't been at that place at that time - if I hadn't met that one person at that particular time, the incredible odds of that story ever happening. Not a single one was something I initiated.

In the past months, as he has taken me back to each one and showed me how every single one of them happened by surprise, by HIS initiating them, it causes in me such a deep and abiding trust in him, beyond what I could express because this has had such an impact on my understanding. I ended my prayer time this morning by saying from the very depths of me, "I am IN you, my whole life and my whole being, I am IN you, and I absolutely delight in that." Then I went to my daily reading, reading just from where I left off yesterday, and there it was - the very Scripture I had posted this morning. It just leaves me with my jaw at my feet.

Things are coming together in my mind. For years I've pondered how Paul and Silas were able to "sing praises to God at midnight" - in a dungeon, having been mercilessly whipped, their feet in stocks. Because the Lord has brought this passage to me in a very dramatic way - long story - I've asked God to give me understanding on HOW they were ABLE to do that. If I had been whipped and placed in a dark dungeon, blood streaming down my back - I can't imagine myself singing praises to God. Yet, he has brought that passage to my attention in a such a dramatic way that it has caused me to think deeply on it for quite some time. I have thought deeply on it, and I've asked him to reveal to me HOW they could have that mindset while they sat in such pain.

I think maybe I've seen some of the answer to my question. As the Lord has made me see so very clearly that every story in my life has been authored by HIM, then it follows that this understanding is the very thing that answers the question. If every story is God-authored, and every single one of them has been worked out for my good - then that's all I need to know in the painful ones, so how can I ever doubt when I find myself in a story that makes no immediate sense to me? I've seen what he's done with them in the past, every single time without fail, so now I can rest in that understanding and yes ....sing praises to him at midnight.

As I was telling the Lord this morning - I heard it said that when God brings a person into his covenant, he takes RESPONSIBILITY for that person's life. And that's it! I see it as never before. All our stories are authored by him and he authors each one for a very definite purpose. Nothing is random in our lives. God has pre-planned each one of them, and each - for a specific purpose.

It takes years of walking with him before a person can be ABLE to understand that. It takes years of seeing how he made each story end up to be a blessing I would never have had if that particular story hadn't happened. And it is this understanding that makes a person ABLE to praise God at midnight.

Finally ...I think I "get it!"