Author Archives: Nannette

About Nannette

Wife to The Sweetheart, Mom to the Fantastic Six, Nana to six of the cutest littles on the planet, Author, The Daniel Fast, A Devotional. UPCI ministers.

Crazy Coincidence or Divine Appointment?

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“There is a God who governs the world, so that things do not come to pass by chance, no, not the smallest event, but all by Divine direction.” ~ Matthew Henry

 

Crazy Coincidence or Divine Appointment?

There was a lady who experienced quite the coincidence in the Bible. You may or may not know her as the Shunammite woman whose son was raised from the dead by the prophet Elisha in the book of 2 Kings, chapter 4.

Elisha had told the woman that there would be a famine in the land and she should go and stay wherever she could because the famine would last for seven years. She obeyed, took her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

At the end of the seven years she makes her way back to Israel to make an appeal to the king to get her house and her land returned to her. Now this is no small feat for anyone, especially for a woman! To go before the king and demand your property be returned to you after seven years of being gone had to be a little scary, and from the commentaries I have read he might not have been particularly easy to work with.

In the meantime, the king is talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God; they are just sitting around discussing all of the great things Elisha has done. There they are going down through the list of all the miracles he had performed and when Gehazi gets to the story of Elisha bringing the Shunammite woman’s son back to life she walks in at that very moment to ask the king to restore her house and land! Gehazi is beside himself and reacts like this:

“My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” 2 Kings 8:5 NKJV.

It isn’t like they are the only ones in the room…surely there are many people in line to see the king just as this woman. But Gehazi sees her just as he is telling about her son’s miracle.

The king listens to her story, assigns an official to her case and tells him to “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.” 2 Kings 8:6 NIV.

Crazy Coincidence? I prefer to call it Divine Appointment!

Crazy Coincidence hopeinthehealing

God had taken care of her this far; He sure was not going to abandon her now!

This was no coincidence my friend, this was all divinely orchestrated by God.

Coincidence- A sequence of events that although accidental seems to have been planned or arranged.

Can you handle one more story?

We all love Ruth and Naomi and their dedication to one another in the Old Testament. After the death of both of their husbands they move back to their homeland and in order to provide food for the two of them, Ruth is out in the field gathering grain that is left over from the harvesters.

“Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.” Ruth 2:3 NKJV.

She just happened to come to the field that belonged to Boaz…a man of influence and wealth who would soon fall in love with her and take her for his wife.

But it doesn’t end there. This little coincidence truly is a Divine Appointment, for we find Boaz and Ruth listed in the New Testament in a pretty important place.

“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham…Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king.” Matthew 1:1-5 NKJV.

Surely you can think of times in your life when circumstances have come together that you knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it had to be God! Some would have called it coincidence but you knew better.

God had His hand all over it!

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
And He delights in his way.” Psalm 37:23 NKJV.

[Tweet “We miss out on giving God the glory in when we pass something off as chance, happenstance or coincidence.”]

What specific instances can you recall that God has done in your life that you knew was not a coincidence?

Have you found yourself in the right place at the right time and just knew it was the hand of God?

[Tweet “Nothing happens by chance!”]

I like to think that my God delights in getting out His datebook and setting up Divine Appointments for me!

Do you have a Divine Appointment you would like to share? We would love to hear it!

 

Kingdom2

 

In the Multitude of My Thoughts…

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31 Days of Hope & HealingDay 13 of  the #31dbc! 31 Days of Hope and Healing.

“When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.
In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.” Psalm 94:18-19.

Your comforts delight my soul. Doesn’t that phrase alone just cover you like a blanket?! When the anxieties of this life pile on us and overwhelm us and our foot slips, the Lord will hold us up.

His comforts will delight our very soul.

The commentaries explain the word “thoughts” here to mean branches of trees, thick and entwined. Complicated, busy or distressing thoughts.

This time of year is a comforting time.
The turning of the leaves.
The cooling of temperatures.
Getting out our sweaters and boots.
Snuggling up with a throw and a cup of hot chocolate.
It’s time for campfires and caramel apples…and plenty of good comfort food.

God brings us comfort in so many ways. He relieves us of those anxieties, and complicated or distressing thoughts, with His loving comfort, in an instant, if we will allow Him.

The Comfort of His Presence: “Honor and majesty are (found) in His presence; strength and joy are (found) in His sanctuary.” 1 Chronicles 16:27 AMP.

“There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Joshua 1:5.

The Comfort of His Love: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3, NIV.

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19, NIV.

The Comfort of His Security: “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Psalm 18:2.

“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” Isaiah   43:2.

The Comfort of His Promise: “So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” Hebrews 9:28 NKJV.

“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 ESV.

What kind of comfort do you need today?

Chicken soup is good.

A nice cozy blanket is appealing.

Even a blazing fire makes us feel warm and toasty inside.

But all of those things are temporary and they do not fill the soul.

Only the Great Comforter can do that.

He is the One to hold you up, calm the thoughts within and delight your very soul!

Psalm 94

Sharing with Inspire Me Mondays, Amaze Me Mondays, Hear it on Sunday Use it on Monday, Motivation Monday, Living Proverbs 31

Meekness is NOT Weakness!

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“Humility is the almost impossible task of being more concerned with my own sins than the sins of others.” ~ Trevor Hammack

In Numbers the 12th chapter, Moses was called meek at a time in his life when he was being unjustly criticized by Miriam and Aaron because he had married an Ethiopian woman.

They thought the Lord could speak to them just as well as He could through Moses, and they were brave enough to say so!

“And the Lord heard it.” Numbers 12:2. NKJV.

(“Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) Numbers 12:3.

The Greek word for gentleness is prautes. It is the quality of not being overly impressed by a sense of self importance. C Norman Bartlett says, “gentleness, or meekness, cannot be too strongly insisted upon that meekness is not weakness. It is strength held under control, power kept in reserve.”

So we can see that Moses is meek and humble, he is gentle. Moses isn’t going to say anything to his own sister and brother. He is not  going to call them out in front of the congregation and make them be quiet or tell them they are out of line. It just is not his way.

He doesn’t have to…

Immediately the Lord calls to Moses, Aaron and Miriam and tells them to go to the Tabernacle. The Lord then descends in the pillar of a cloud and stands at the entrance of the Tabernacle!

“Aaron and Miriam!…Now listen to what I say: If there were prophets among you, I, the Lord, would reveal myself in visions. I would speak to them in dreams. But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face….He sees the Lord as he is. So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?” Numbers 12:5-8 NLT.

The Bible says the Lord was very angry with them and as soon as He departed, there stood Miriam…her skin as white as snow from leprosy!

Aaron cries out to Moses for mercy and Moses then cries out to the Lord asking Him to heal Miriam. God doesn’t instantly heal her but follows the Law and has her shut out of the camp for seven days.

[Tweet “The meek will not seek private revenge even though they were wronged.”]

Moses’ sister and brother wanted the limelight and didn’t seem to care that it was Moses, the one who had led them out of slavery, that they were finding fault against.

But Moses kept quiet, and because He did, the Lord fought for him! When God fights for you, when Almighty God stands in the gap for you, not only will you win friend, you win big!

Meekness-hopeinthehealing

And those that are against you…even if you love them… can lose big.

God let Miriam and Aaron know that Moses was the one that He had chosen to speak to…face to face. They had better think twice before they criticized the man of God again!

Was it because of the meekness of Moses that “…he sees the Lord as he is”? Do you not think that our attitudes have so much to do with whether or not we can enter into the Holy of Holies?

Yes, God spoke to Moses face to face because of his humility.

Psalm 37:11 “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”

Missionary William Turner said that “Meekness yields to what we perceive to be our rights. We do it to obtain a greater spiritual good.”

If you truly possess a spirit of meekness and humility, you won’t keep insisting on your own rights.

“And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth…” 2 Timothy 2:24-25.

Meekness is never weakness!

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