God-Incidences

You know those times you suddenly notice everything God’s been up to? I was doing a few things on the internet this afternoon, when I realized God has totally been working in my life, reminding me that He’s there and He cares. And I hadn’t stopped to notice.  

 - A couple of weeks ago, my family and I went to a Lifeline Book Fair. I had wanted to go to one of Lifeline’s book fairs for ages. I lined this one up, and I was really looking forward to it. A couple of days before the fair I took a peak into my bank account to see how much I could afford to spend. Because of some fees for my diploma, the sad truth was: I had twenty-five dollars to spend. Twenty-five dollars! I knew the books were second-hand, but I didn’t know how cheap they were going to be, and $25 doesn’t go very far. So I started praying. There was a textbook I had to buy, and it cost over one hundred dollars. I’d heard that there were textbooks at the fair, so I was praying that the book I needed would be there for a reduced price, which would then greatly increase my budget. 

When we got to the fair, I went straight to the Psychology and Counselling section. The textbook wasn’t there. As I started browsing the other sections, I realised my money wasn’t going to go very far. The books were cheap, but there’s only five fives in twenty-five, you know. (In case you haven’t heard of my book-acquiring habits before, I go for quantity as well as quality and affordability.) I let my pile stack up anyway, and planned to have a hard ‘going through’ to narrow it down before making the purchase. When I had almost finished browsing the sections that interested me, a lady started speaking over the loudspeaker. “In fifteen minutes, the bag sale will start.” My brother and I looked at each other: What on earth is a bag sale? She went on to explain that the bag sale meant you could get everything you could fit into a normal sized shopping bag for twenty dollars. Wow! I’m not skilled at bargaining, but I was pretty sure I could fit quite a few books into one bag.

In the end, I got seventeen books for twenty dollars. Some might call it a coincidence, but I believe God answered my prayers. He cares enough about a girl’s enjoyment of books and limited budget, and chose to bless me with a reminder of His care. I mean, isn’t that amazing?! I even had five dollars to spare! :D

- Some of you might have seen my review of The True Vine on goodreads. It’s an amazing book, and was a real blessing to me. I was thinking about it as I wrote that review, and suddenly another God-incidence became apparent. That book had been sitting on our shelf for almost two years. It was given to us, and normally I would’ve checked it out immediately. But instead, I randomly picked it up a couple of weeks ago. I can’t even remember what prompted me to pick it up - I was in the middle of reading other things. But I started reading The True Vine, and I was blown away. It was exactly what I needed to read, and I think God knew that all along. Thanks God for reminding me yet again that you care about every little detail of my life. (Also, in case I haven’t implied this enough, The True Vine is an excellent book, and I recommend you read it. :)

- Over a year ago I described how God provided me with some shoes I needed (like brand new perfect, for op shop price) before I’d even had a chance to ask. Guess what? He did it again! Today I was in town, and seeing as I was alone, I decided to go to an op shop (you know, it’s never safe to leave me alone). As I looked at the shoe section – which I have never bought anything from before, by the way – a lady volunteering at the op shop came and put a couple of new pairs of shoes on the rack. One pair looked like what I had passively been wanting, and feeling I needed. Basically, I saw them and they looked nice, and quality, and brand new. I checked them and they were my size. I put them on and they fit (a rare thing for shoes to do on my feet). They were six dollars! So God did it again – catered for my desires on my budget. He’s incredible. 

 

I’m sure there are many other blessings He’s been giving and I’ve been missing. But these just dawned on me, and I had to shout it out: God is good! But, I want to hear your stories too. :) How has God been blessing you? Have you experienced times or situations when it just had to be Him orchestrating things? 

And how are you going with the 31 hugs challenge so far?