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Listen while you read: "Am I A Soldier Of The Cross"1 (Lyrics) |
Whenever my father experiences a coincidence or serendipitous happening, he calls it a "God wink". Sometimes as God speaks to us through these God winks, He uses them as a way to affirm, validate, or draw our attention to the stirrings of His inner voice. The experience will instantly resonate with a Christian's inner spirit, speaking its message directly into their heart.
Matthew 10:20 – For it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. (NIV)
Recently, I was caught up in a God wink experience. One Sunday morning in mid-April, the inspiration and subject matter for a new devotional swept over me, sending me to my keyboard. By nightfall, I had prepared a submission I called Sticks and Stones. The next morning, I opened my e-mail, and the bold text of the day's devotional read Sticks And Stones. What was going on? I hadn't sent mine anywhere last night, had I? Momentary confusion muddled my thoughts as I scrolled down to read the body of the text. "Sticks and stones will break my bones …" It was the same introduction. But selections aren't published that quickly; there is a refining process, editing, scheduling. As I read further, the words became unfamiliar to me, although the theme was similar: words can hurt, so show kindness through your actions.
Later that same day, I shared the Sticks and Stones God wink experience with my sister. What my sister said in response to this Sticks and Stones story was remarkable. The sermon given at her church that Sunday was titled Sticks and Stones, and the theme was kindness through words and deeds.
1 Corinthians 3:10 – These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (NIV)
God was using His people to spread His message of love, both corporately and personally. God's corporate message repeated throughout each of the Sticks and Stones versions, urges us all to walk in love. The God wink part of the Sticks and Stones stories speaks a loving and personal message directly to the hearts of those involved in penning and delivering the words: keep listening; God is using you.
Christians truly are God's ambassadors here on earth. Our actions and words do matter. The God of the Bible is actively using His followers to spread His message today. We are part of His ongoing story to humanity. Keep watching and listening, and may God wink at you, too!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us spiritual eyes and ears to help us as we go about Your work. Help us to grow confident and proficient in their use. Thank You for using each of us in unique ways to carry out Your work here on earth. Thank You for speaking to us directly and personally, in ways that we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they are messages from You. Thank You for using God winks as one method of communicating Your messages of affirmation, love, comfort, guidance, and unity to Your people. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
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Thanks for sharing Jackie.
Dear Jackie: Love the analogy!
Blessings.
Jackie – I enjoyed your devotional today, especially the paragraph stating that “Our actions and words do matter.” We know they do.
A friend of mine called these “God-incidences” instead of co-incidences or “God winks.” Isn’t God amazing when He does these things! Blessings.
Thank you for this additional devotional on “Sticks and Stones” Jackie.
There is another God Wink going on, – the story that I have been working on. I like that term ‘God Wink’ way better than ‘coincidence’ as with God there are no coincidences. At least I don’t think so.
Wow!!!!!!!
Good day Jackie I started out with the wow because it really spoke to me and the few days I was battling some stuff for work. Reading devotions each day is so enlightening and can be thought provoking but it makes me stronger as the day goes by.
Thanks for this devotion and do continue to inspire the many hungry hearts like mine to be closer to our Lord.
Have a blessed day.
(Trinidad)
Dear Jackie,
Just amazing! God used the Sticks and Stones theme three times to imprint the truth of his way — kindness through kind actions! I pray that our Lord will keep us remembering this truth forever.
We became Christians by the mercy, love, and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, and “They will know we are Christians by our love.” And I pray we will pass on the way of Jesus Christ in love, flavored with grace and mercy.
Thank you for your devotional.
Keep writing.
Hi,
Isn’t it interesting how God uses so many different methods to underline and emphasize a special point He wants to get across to us?
It never ceases to amaze me.
One of those “God winks” happened to me quite profoundly just a couple of weeks ago. I had spent 2 days at an assembly of about 200 people. The worship services and the teachings had a deep impact on me and after the third teaching, I was so affected by it that I had a shift from the idea of doing/giving all that I am and have, to God, TO doing and giving all that I am and have TO BRING GLORY TO GOD. I don’t know whether that is a perfect or complete description of the shift, because it seems so simple in retrospect but was profound at the time. A few days later, while I was still feeling the effects of that change within in my life’s purpose, I opened one of my daily devotionals and the title was, “a seismic shift in our spiritual focus”, that God is bringing about! I call that an awesome God wink, and am finding every day a slightly new adventure as I begin to look at my life from the point of view of BRINGING GLORY TO GOD rather than concentrating on all the different ways I might ‘serve’ Him.