God Winks

I think a great conversation for us to have is to realize how easy it is for any of us to get discouraged, right? Um to feel like things aren’t going the way that we wanted to and we just need a little bit of encouragement. And you’ve talked about God winks the way that God can show us special little things if we’re looking for them. So I think it’s a great talk to have to not only tell people that God is there, but if they’ll look for it, they’ll find that encouragement that they need. So tell us what you mean by God winks. Well I, I say sometimes, you know, it was like a little wink from God. You know how it is if if you really love somebody and maybe they can’t come all the way across the room and give you a big kiss and a hug. But there’s wink at you. You know, it’s like, it’s just like a little special like, oh they see me, They little bit of love, they noticed me, they know I’m here, they care about me. And I think that we get that from God if we learn how to see it and something that was really life changing for me. And I know sometimes as christians, we throw that word around a lot. It was life changing. But this really was a very big thing for me in first john four in the amplified bible, it says we are to be conscious and aware of the love that God has for us. And um it only says it that way and in that translation, but that it was like I learned how to watch for God’s love. I learned how to watch for things that he did for me that otherwise I might have just chalked up to coincidence or sure, yeah, not even paid any attention to it all. I mean how many times are you in the right place at just the right time and meet just the right person that can open just the right door for you and it’s an answer to your prayer that you didn’t. If you’re not careful, you’ll just miss it. I think a lot of times we pray for things and and we forget we even prayed about it. And then God answers that prayer in some simple little way or through somebody and you know like like even, oh God, I’m so discouraged. I feel like I, you know, I just, I need to be encouraged and you know, then later somebody says something encouraging to you and you forget that you even Yeah, very true prayed about it. But I think that it can really increase the intimacy of your relationship with God if you learn how to watch for those things and not not think well that was a lucky coincidence or aren’t you lucky? You know, I don’t, I’m not trying to be super spiritual here and say that you know, there’s a problem with the word luck, but I think that when things turn out good for me, it’s not just luck, it’s God caring about me and blessing me and so what are some examples of God winks that you have seen that you can share with? Okay, well I’ll share one from a long, long time ago and I’ll share one from recently, 40 two, years ago when I was still just teaching home bible study, 25 people every Tuesday night wasn’t in full time ministry yet had a big dream, a big vision. I wanted to go all over the world and teach the word and you know, all the things that I’m doing now, but I, they were just a dream and as far as I knew, I was halfway crazy. I mean there was nothing to make me think that that would happen. But God needed to develop, he needed to build and develop a relationship with me a strong relationship with me before I could even begin to really help other people. And um so because I’ve been mistreated in my childhood, I really honestly didn’t even know what love was. I mean, it was more just a word until I had a lot of teaching and understanding and you know, watch Dave and what love was for him and how he, how he loved me unconditionally through things and watching God and so I had quit my job to prepare for this ministry dream that I had and we were a little bit short every month of having enough money to pay our bills. So it was like one of the first really, really huge steps of faith That we took and it was like $40 we needed every month. So it had to come from somewhere miraculously. And in fact I started back then keeping journals or little prayer notebooks or things like that. And I still have a little spiral notebook where I wrote in it. Dear God, I’m asking you to provide these things for me. And On that list was I needed a new skillet, I asked for 12 new washcloths. I mean just you know, I mean we we were dependent on God for everything that wasn’t just paying one of our monthly bills. And so I I still remember a day when my doorbell rang and it was a lady I didn’t know and she said, I hope you don’t think that I am stark raving mad. But she said, I really felt like that God kept impressing me to bring you 12 new washcloths. And I just went berserk. The lady probably thought I was absolutely nuts because I knew that I knew that I knew that it was God and I that did so much for my relationship With God because I knew that that he heard me and that he saw me and that that he cared about even my wash rags and then recently I just had something happen where there’s a certain medication that I’ve had to take for like 25 years and suddenly they just stopped making it which is disconcerting. There’s a shortage of one of these ingredients and we’re no longer going to be making this medication. I didn’t get a three month morning, I blah blah blah. So I had to find something else to replace it. Well you know just about all medications come with some kind of side effects and and so I don’t know, no, you know, I don’t want to go through that again. But at the same time apart from that I had not been feeling very well and I have been praying that God would would help me, I just felt like I really needed more energy. Well at first I was just like really disappointed and then I thought you know what? Instead of believing this is gonna be a disaster and I’m just gonna believe that God can give me something that will even help more that will, that will work better. And sure enough that’s exactly what happened. And I mean I prayed about it, I did some study and actually when I went to the doctor I said this is what I would like to try and I’ve had a 20 year relationship with this doctor. So if you know if you don’t have a problem with it, this is what I would like to try, I’ve prayed about it and thought about it and and she said no I’m I’m okay with that. You can try that. And uh it just, I feel so much better. There’s just so many things that it’s helped symptoms that I was side effects I was having from the other medicine I’m not having now that have made things so much better. And then the new medication, I don’t seem to be having any side effects. And so what looked like and oh no, turned out to be a blessing from God like him say, see he cares. The thing that’s so cool about this kind of stuff is that God cares about every single thing that concerns you everything. And if we can learn to see those things, I, I think we need to make a bigger deal out of the little things. I totally agree than what we do. Yeah, I do a message called living amazed and I wanna be, I wanna stay amazed and what God does in my life. I recall one time saying to the Lord, why don’t why don’t you do the things in my life that you used to do when I first started walking with you. Like I would have some of the most, I mean to me, like I have a question and I could open my bible and there would be the very thing that, you know, I needed, it just seemed like everything was so exciting. You know, in in those early days and I had just kind of got into a lot of the humdrum, you know, go through the motions and I said, why don’t you do the things that, that you used to do when I first started walking with you? He said, I do, you’ve just gotten used to them. Ouch yeah, that’s really true, wow, you’ve just gotten used to them, you know, remember when you were so excited about everything you read in the bible, it was just like, oh my gosh, you know, you mean, you mean I can just through learning how to think, right, I can have more peace sir, you know, wow, my words are that important. I can, I don’t, I don’t have to be negative, you know, that’s just, that’s my choice. So many things like that, but then we get used to those things and I don’t ever want to do that. I want to stay amazed at every little thing and every big thing that God does for me and I like to keep what I call books of remembrance where I write down things like that that God does for me and then on days when I’m a little bit, you know, I can, it’s fun to go back and look at, oh yeah, I remember that. I remember those wash rags, I mean can you believe that, right, Right? Yeah, I mean and everything is not that specific, but we need to realize that God works through people. And so even if a person does something for you that’s still, I mean that doesn’t mean that it’s not God working through them, I had one of those recently where um I just felt really strongly that I was supposed to tell something to a friend that made no sense in my mind at all and um they were looking for a job and I just thought I wonder if so and so if they’ve talked to them which did not connect to any jobs didn’t make any sense and I shared it with them and like the woman knocking at your door with the wash rags, she probably felt a little odd, it was very bold of her. Exactly, so I I just felt like I know this doesn’t make sense, but anyway here it is, I’m just gonna throw it out there and it was a connection to a connection that led to a job. So it that was a huge God wink for me as much as it was for her because it reminded me that God is hearing my prayers and speaking to me and I’m hearing him and using me, you know how much we all need reminded of that, so that was wonderful and another one like you said with just the little things that really matter, I I love Snow and we don’t get a lot of it here in Missouri but we get a little bit and I don’t think we do, but that’s alright, we’ll leave that for another conversation but um I was walking in the morning and not having a great morning and um just kind of grumbling and complaining and praying if you want to call it that, but it was more venting to God and this perfect little snowflake just landed right on me and it was just one of those things that without a doubt, that’s what God knew would point me back to him and remind me this is a little wink that I’m here, I’m listening, it’s going to be okay because it was something that I love. So those are very encouraging and you know I’m thankful to be childlike enough to be able to believe things like that are from God instead of being the skeptic wow that I mean that could have happened. I think so many people miss a lot of just downright fun with God because they’re so mature that they can’t you know, they can’t believe the little while that wasn’t God. I mean that was just coincidence or that could have happened anyway and well it didn’t it didn’t happen anyway, you know, I’ve never had anybody before ever knock on my door and want to give me wash rags and it it is amazing how many times something will happen, that seems negative, but actually if you believe that it can work out good, it can turn out to be an answer to a prayer, you know that you’ve been praying for a long time. You know sometimes you know some you you know like a person might be praying for a different job or a different career and but they’re not bold enough to step out and actually leave where they’re at and go somewhere else. Well you know what happens if they get laid off, you know? Well they might think that’s the most terrible thing in the world, but it could be God pushing them out of the nest, so to speak. That’s exactly right to force them to have to do what they really want to do, but don’t have the courage to do. And so I just I would just really like people to take what we’ve shared here today and start looking for the little winks from God in their own life and let’s make more out of those little things than what we normally would because I mean anything that God does is not a little thing, that’s something we don’t need to celebrate. That’s so true. And it’s very encouraging in all of our lives