God Works It All Together!

     Nothing is more amazing to me than watching God’s timing played out! God takes many pieces of a puzzle, works them to all fit together, and orchestrates an event or a moment in time that can change the course of our life. This weekend presented me with the opportunity to once again watch God’s plan unfold and I stand in amazement of His workings. About 20 months ago, a friend and boss gave me a book for Dwayne and me. He thought it would be a good book to use when we taught our next marriage retreat. The book was “Love and Respect”. He was right, it was a marvelous book and we decided to teach it in our 2009 Valentine’s marriage retreat. About six months ago we agreed to go to Montana and teach a marriage retreat and decided to teach ‘Love and Respect’ again. The retreat was booked for this past weekend, which was two weeks after our 2010 marriage retreat in Oklahoma. The two weeks before leaving for Montana was horribly busy. Right after our yearly retreat, I worked in Nebraska for a week. When I came back, I was sick and two days later my uncle died. My cousin came and stayed a few nights with us and I helped with a part of the funeral and Dwayne conducted the service. On Wednesday, I had to work and we had Bible Study; plus I had to pack and prepare for the Montana trip. We got to bed at 1:30 a.m. Thursday, I worked and we caught our flight to Montana. We got there late that evening and stayed up even later with friends. Needless to say, we were extremely tired. We found out that the author of ‘Love and Respect’ had spoke in Helena and the majority of the people attending the retreat had gone to his seminar. Now I have to tell you that between being extremely tired and feeling a little inadequate to teach a subject that was already taught by the author himself, I questioned how effective the weekend was going to be. I don’t think I have ever felt so insecure going into a retreat. We had some friends from the church we had planted fourteen years ago in Helena and we had some who were attending the newly planted church in the valley of Helena which sponsored the retreat. One couple from that church started to get my attention. The husband was absorbing everything and was very attentive. The wife though was very quiet and hard to read. We had planned to end Friday night with an activity. I was going to take the men for a session and answer questions by explaining a woman’s viewpoint and Dwayne was going to do the same with the women. However, our time Friday night caught us behind schedule and we skipped this activity. By the end of the Saturday morning session, we had caught up. The afternoon session was on application and commitment. When we reached the last hour of the retreat we realized we were now ahead of schedule and decided to do the activity we had skipped the night before. When I began by asking the men for questions, the husband of the couple I mentioned earlier, started sharing. He asked for insight on how to love his wife the way she wanted because what he was doing wasn’t working. I encouraged him to read the “Five Love Languages” book. He asked for prayers for his marriage and for his wife, who was not a Christian. Then we all circled around him and prayed passionately and powerfully for this special couple and for her salvation. After this activity we gave out an award to the couple that had earned the most points in our weekend long contest and the couple we had just prayed for won! Would you like to guess what one of the things they won was? The book “Five Love Languages”! After the closing testimonies of the retreat, I realized how powerfully God had worked in the marriages that weekend. I humbly ate every word of doubt of the effectiveness of the retreat and God once again confirmed to me that it is not about me, or Dwayne, or the topic, it is about how He empowers everything to work together.
     The next morning Dwayne preached at the church that sponsored the retreat. I got busy talking to people and was still talking when the service began. I hurried to the seat Dwayne had saved for me at the typical quest pastor spot; right up front. Immediately I noticed that sitting right beside me was my special couple, and the wife was next to me! During testimony time, her husband shared that between the retreat and the talking they had done the night before; they felt like they had a new beginning to their marriage. Part one of the prayer from the men’s time at the retreat had now been answered. As soon as Dwayne began his sermon, “Are You Listening to God?”, I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to pray with this couple when the sermon was over. I heard her crying throughout the sermon and I had a hard time waiting to the end. As soon as I knew Dwayne was starting a time of commitment and prayer, I knelt down in front of them and we prayed together. I went back to my seat as prayer time continued. I felt heaviness in my soul and I knew I had not finished my assignment. I was to ask her if she wanted to accept the Lord into her life. I have to say, this is not how I like to deal with a person’s salvation. She had not had time to develop a friendship and a trust with me and I never want to put someone on the spot and give the appearance of pushing them into salvation. However, there was no denying what the spirit was telling me. As I was having this internal conflict with being obedient, her husband went up to pray and I was standing alone with her. I turned and told her that if she wanted to accept the Lord, I was there for her and then I asked her directly what she wanted to do and after talking a few minutes, she determined that she wanted God to direct her life. Her husband and I knelt and prayed with her as she made Jesus her Lord and Savior. God had now answered part two of her husband’s prayer.
     In addition to orchestrating the events from my side, God was working on their side as well. Last Easter, her and her husband attended an Easter Egg Hunt at the church. Then a few months ago, they started visiting this church. Though their marriage was having major troubles, they both agreed to attend the retreat. Her husband was willing to be open to share his need for help and completely vulnerable by asking for help and prayer. They won the book that they needed to go through and they began to talk. Then they attended church on Sunday and decided to sit on the front row next to Dwayne. God had orchestrated each event to show her the need she had for Him. If any one of the steps in this process had been different, the end could have been different at this time in her life.
     Now many people would say this is coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidence but I might give some credit to that opinion if there was only one thing that had fallen into place. However we are talking about many, many things that had to fall into order. There is no way to have this many things falls into place by coincidence. It was totally the hand of God.
     There is two things to learn from this great story. One: Satan will always try to put negative thoughts in our head when God is at work. Negative thoughts about doing something we know we should do, should be a red flag that Satan is trying to stall the plans of God. When this happens to you, don’t let him win... press on to your blessing. Two: God orchestrates His plan in each of our lives. Do you recognize the hand of God in your life? Or do you chalk it up to coincidence. When it comes to God we need to give credit where credit is due. Have you thanked God for caring enough about you that He puts everything in place for you to choose Him and His direction? Ponder the last event God orchestrated in your life and make sure to give Him the praise and thanks He is due!

Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

Philippians 4:9 (The Message)

P.S. I know today’s devotion was long but I felt cutting out the details would minimize the glory that was due God and cut back on the celebration of this salvation. If the angels could take time to have a party her, I thought we wouldn’t mind taking a few extra minutes of reading. I know that she will be reading this today so if you would like to leave her a few words of encouragement on the comments, please do so.