No Coincidence

It was 2:00 in the afternoon. I had an hour until the Vive+ television program began, and I had the privilege of answering ministry calls from people who wanted to know more about Jesus. I tried to start the car and I tried again with the same result. I called for a tow truck. It was now 3:00 and the program had already started. I was worried that I wouldn’t be there to answer the calls together with the rest of my colleagues from the Mexico office.

Finally, the truck arrived. The driver said that I had to ride with him in the cab. At that moment, I noticed that he had a statuette of “Santa Muerte”—the cult symbol of death on the control panel of the vehicle. In Mexico, this type of cultic practice is, sadly, common.

At that moment, I understood that God had a purpose for this incident. I prayed for wisdom to present His Word and a conversation began. At first, it was very tense as I asked him if he was a follower of the cult of death. He said yes. I wanted to know how he was doing.

He told me his story, about his job a few years back, how he got trapped in the drugs he used, how he lost his wife and two daughters because of his addiction, and that he had found the statue while he was digging up rubbish in the cellar where an uncle allowed him to sleep. He was grateful that he had overcome addiction and had his family back. I was silent for a long time and paid attention to every detail. I felt a genuine interest in the man. His eyes filled with light when he talked about his two daughters. It was something I could identify with. He attributed everything to the statue of Santa Muerte, but he also knew that the image had no more power than what he gave it.

“If you have faith in this bottle of water, good things will happen because you have faith in it,” he explained, very sure of himself. That afternoon, the traffic was particularly heavy for a Saturday. It gave us time to talk. Listening to him, I thought his reaction was very human. How many times have we missed the opportunity to see God or recognize Him because we are looking for our own explanations? We can miss the blessing by focusing on the reasoning that sounds appealing, but actually draws attention away from God and onto our own desires (see 1 Corinthians 10:1-18Close1 Corinthians 10:1-18 I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters,* about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, "The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry."* And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day. Nor should we put Christ* to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. And don't grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true. When we bless the cup at the Lord's Table, aren't we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren't we sharing in the body of Christ? And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body. Think about the people of Israel. Weren't they united by eating the sacrifices at the altar? OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) ).

But this was not the time for reproaches or controversy. I prayed to God to give me love and the Word that He wanted to share with him. At that moment, the Lord brought Romans 10:17CloseRomans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) to my mind, where it says

… faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (NIV).

With that reminder, it was my turn to speak.

I explained that, in reality, God had been with him and had reached out to him at just the right time, by His grace. I told him that I was sure of that because the Bible explains it clearly:

Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth (Psalms 124:8ClosePsalms 124:8 Our help is from the LORD,  who made heaven and earth. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) ).

We cannot let anything rob God of His glory. Later, I asked him about his relationship with his father and he told me that it was very bad.

“But to those who received him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to be children of God,” (John 1:12CloseJohn 1:12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. OPEN VERSE IN BIBLE (nlt) ) was my response. I told him that God loved him in a way that was immeasurably greater than the love he had for his daughters and that He had given His only begotten Son for him, that Jesus’ blood was shed to pay for sin.

That day, he kindly declined my invitation to receive Jesus into his heart but promised to read the book of Luke that very afternoon. With a new battery, my car started. I asked God that the heart of that man would have a restart while reading His Word.

Later that day, reflecting on this experience, I realized something that I want to emphasize. There are two ways to live life; one is to see the hand of God in everything, and the other is to overlook it and attribute its blessings to other things such as circumstances, luck or chance. When we relinquish control of our lives to Jesus, we can expect Him to always have a purpose for every detail—even a car with a dead battery.

Which way will we choose to live our lives today?

~

Scripture is quoted from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION^®, NIV^® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.^® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.