Coincidence?

We never know when God will chose to step in and interrupt our lives. Just when we start to feel safe and comfortable with things as they are we may find that God wants us to get a little uncomfortable again. Sometimes the way God works may seem like coincidence. Or maybe we just find it's easier to rationalize it that way. But if God didn't speak why pray?

"And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased.
And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? "
Matthew 21:15-17
So often the Lord uses my three little girls to convict me and to speak to my heart. Their beautiful faith and purity of trust remind me of what my love for Him should be. Last week we were studying a chapter on diligence in their devotional book. It is a simple book focused on getting the heart of the message into the heart of a child. At the end of each chapter are some application questions and activities. We went through each one. The last one was this..."Romans 12:2 says, 'continuing instant in prayer.' Find a prayer request, pray diligently, and continue until God answers your prayer." Straight forward enough. My thoughts immediately went to our hopes for the farm and the way I believed I saw God using it in our lives. I said nothing about it though. "Probably just my own will coming up to the surface." I thought," I shouldn't bring it up again in front of the girls. Why drag them along on that emotional roller coaster if I am not sure it is God's will?" Then our oldest daughter who is all of six, spoke up. "We should pray for the farm." I tried to explain why I was hesitant to pray for such a thing. "Maybe that's just not what God has for us". "We can't just give up." she insisted. "We have been praying about this for so long, for like years. We need to be diligent." Unconvinced but pricked in my conscience, I subtly changed the subject.
A few days later we were all sitting together in the living room getting ready for my husband to leave for a few days on a work trip. Our second daughter who is four, asked if we could pray. "Can we pray for the farm Daddy? I think we should be praying about that." My husband looked at me questioningly and we silently agreed. Why not? So sitting there we lowered our heads, joined hands and beeseched the Almighty Creator of the universe, of all that is, seen and unseen, to intervene on our behalf. If it would please Him and bring Him great glory we asked that He would bring this impossible thing to pass.

Then Yesterday when I was checking my email I saw an email from an address I didn't quite recognise. I wondered if I should delete it but then I suddenly remembered. This email was from the owner of the farm. I hadn't heard from him in 9 months since I had sent him a message letting him know that we had explored all the avenues that we could think of and all of them were dead ends. If we were going to buy back the farm it would have to be a miraculous answer to prayer. I never got a response to that email. Now after all this time he was writing me again. He included some pictures of the farm house with details as to the renovations and clean-up they are doing. They have lowered the price quite a bit despite all the money they are putting into it. It was exiting to hear that they were making the place beautiful again. More exiting though, is that after all this time the Lord was bringing it back into our lives as a result of the prayers of our children. Can we afford the farm now any more then we could 9 months ago? No. Do we feel the pull of the Holy Spirit convicting us to be diligent in prayer even though it is impossible? Yes. So if you feel encouraged or convicted join with us. If you think I'm a nutcase don't. Still I know the Lord is not done with this yet and He is going to use this in our lives to show himself strong.
The next chapter in the girl's devotional book is on patience. "Be ye also patient, stablish your hearts..." James 5:8
Is this mere coincidence or the divine workings of the Holy Spirit? It is good to be discerning but how sad I would be to miss the Lord's fingerprints on my life simply because he conceals His hand.
"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints..." Ephesians 6:18
Praying and watching. Amen