The Specificity of God’s Faithfulness

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
—2 Timothy 2:13

So much of Christianity is and has been focused on our faith – effectively making faith a work, a labor to be accomplished, rather than simply being confident in God – that we hardly ever hear of God’s own faithfulness.

Something fascinating happened to me, or for me, quite recently. In fact it was the night of Tuesday, 05 April 2022. I was about to go to bed when I just happened to notice that the time on my clock-radio was off, behind by about fifteen minutes. I checked the clock on my stove, then the time on my smartphone. My stove was correct; so it obviously wasn’t a brief power outage.

I can only guess that in checking the alarm for the next morning, I somehow bobbled one or more of the other buttons, inadvertently messing up the time. But because I was tired, and because fixing the clock-radio meant fiddling with small buttons and smaller labels, I let it go and set the alarm on my phone. Which, thank God, woke me up at the correct time.

At this point you might be thinking that, yes, this is a great demonstration of God’s faithfulness: not only making me aware of the incorrect time on my clock-radio, but also providing an alternative – my smartphone – which successfully woke me up at the correct time the next morning so I wouldn’t be late for work.

And you’d be right … up to the part about going to work.

See, that next day, Wednesday, April 06, was a day off for me.

In case you’re wondering why I’d get up via alarm on a day off, there are two reasons:

• Six days out of seven I get up at the same time because it helps me maintain a good sleep cycle.
• There’s a comedy show that comes on a half hour after I get up. On my days off I live-tweet the show during breakfast with about a dozen other regular fans.

So now you might be thinking this is ridiculous: that I’m giving God credit for my not missing a comedic live-tweet session (not to mention building a lesson around that). Um, yes, that is exactly what I’m doing.

There are several aspects to this: Had that next day been a work day, I might’ve become panicky about the lagging time on my clock-radio. Even if I reset it, worry about this still-unexplained error, and the possibility of it happening again during the night, may have plagued my mind and affected the quality of my sleep. Even relying on my smartphone – then an unproven solution – might have bothered me subconsciously and impacted my sleep.

Instead, because it happened the night before a free day, the worst that could’ve happened was missing the show (and maybe buying a new clock-radio). It was also an opportunity to test my smartphone’s alarm function (and monitor the clock-radio throughout the day). And of course, I was able to enjoy the social interaction of the live-tweeting session.

There is plenty of evidence of God’s specificity in the Bible. Exodus 12:17&18 gives us the specific period for the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Exodus also gives us the very specific instructions for building the Tabernacle in the Wilderness. God does not tend only to the “big things” in our lives. He has numbered the hairs of your head; He is a deeply caring father who also looks after the intimate details of our lives.

Just in case you still doubt the value or validity of this lesson, here’s another example from around that same time. But first, some context:

For the last several years I’ve been working part-time. At my previous job I had a modest wage, and few hours. Things were quite tight for me. When the renewal packet arrived for last year’s home insurance, I e-mailed the company, explaining my situation and asking for a quarterly break-out of payments instead of a lump sum. Thank God, they complied.

My new job is also part-time. A slightly better wage, and more hours; nonetheless, still part-time. So when this year’s renewal packet arrived, I thought it wise to make the same request again. I checked the packet’s invoice sheet to verify the e-mail address … and found the bill was already broken out into quarterly payments! God had answered my request before I even made it! Now that’s the specificity of God’s faithfulness.

(By the way, in case you’re wondering what happened to my lesson on hearing from the Holy Spirit, fret not! I’ve begun work on the second installment.)

If you haven’t yet made Jesus your personal Savior, today – right now – is the best time to do so. You can ask Him in your own words, or use some version of the Sinner’s Prayer. Remember, Jesus – Yeshua – turns no-one away.

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© 2022 Zero Faith Saint

God’s Impeccable Timing

This happened literally this past Sunday. I had headed out early in the afternoon to get some cash from the ATM so I could then gas up my truck and then get some groceries.

As I rolled through the intersection and approached the corner of the bank lot, I just happened to catch sight of a man there, walking around his car. He had a certain stature and build, and moved in a certain way. It struck me that he just might be the minister who leads our Bible study class. I also happened to note that there was a large object on the ground near his car.

I had originally intended to use the drive-through ATM; however there’s a walk-up ATM on the side where the man was, so I pulled in there. It was in fact my minister, so I honked the horn lightly and yelled, “How’s this for a Divine Appointment!”

Turned out the large object was a child’s wagon his daughter had given to him to donate to a children-oriented thrift store. It wouldn’t fit in his car’s trunk, and he was having trouble getting it onto the rear seat. This was no “little red wagon” like I had; it’s a large, (relatively) modern plastic design, about as big as a good-size picnic cooler.

I parked, then together he and I coaxed the wagon onto his car’s rear seat. We chatted briefly; he then drove off, while I went to the ATM. I then set about my gas and grocery errands. And I still got home in time to catch the start of the Goodyear 400 race.

Divine “Mow-pointment”

Tuesday, December 1st of this year, was a day off for me, so I mowed my lawn. My yard is rather large; even with my self-propelled mower, it takes 2½ – 3 hours to mow (including a short “refill break”, usually about 2/3 through the job, during which I sit in my kitchen and sip some water while letting my mower cool down for a few minutes so I can safely refill it). However, a strong cold front came through the day before, and the temperature had dropped about twenty degrees. I knew my mower would run more efficiently in the cooler weather, so I asked God for a one-tank session, to complete the job sooner without having to stop for the refill. As I reached that “about 2/3” point, I was looking forward to just continuing on to the end.

Until the Holy Spirit reminded me that I had to turn on my water heater.

I don’t need my water heater cycling on and off throughout the day, so it’s on a timer. It comes on in the late afternoon for a few hours so I can have hot water for dishes and a shower in the evening, and this time of year it comes on briefly in the morning so I can splash my face with warm water rather than cold. However, the mowing would be done by mid-afternoon. There may have been some residual warm water in the tank from the night before, but not enough for a good post-mowing shower. So I shut off the mower, went inside and turned on the heater; as I had stopped, I decided to take a refill break anyway.

I had been resting for only a few moments when the doorbell rang. It was my neighbor’s brother, to get his mail. My neighbor’s away on vacation, and I’ve been collecting his mail. If I had still been mowing, his brother would’ve had to interrupt me; I would’ve had to remove my safety gear (gloves, goggles, etc.); dig out my keys to let him in, etc., etc. As it was, because I was already taking a break, as a follow-on to stopping to turn on my water heater, I was able to more or less hand the man his brother’s mail immediately. All because of a thoughtful reminder from the Holy Spirit.

I understand someone could be dismissive in reading this. So let me tell you what happened literally the next day, Wednesday, December 2nd. Mid-morning I had gone downtown to a particular city office. As I was approaching the door, a man who worked there walked out. Seeing paperwork in my hand, he asked me about it. When I explained why I was there, he told me he’d be the person I would see, but he wouldn’t be back until 2pm that day. So I thanked him, and went home to have lunch. When I returned that afternoon, he looked up the info on his computer … and advised me that the issue had already been resolved, and that there was nothing more I needed to do.

I know it’s easy to view such things as simple happenstance. But I have had far too many experiences – some of which I have recorded in this blog – in which a person, an occasion, some sort of provision, or circumstances arrive at a very opportune time, for it to be something that just happened to “just happen”. The skeptic will excuse all this as coincidence. As for myself, I will give the credit to Abba Yehovah.