Last week, in Hearing God’s Voice of Wisdom, Part 1A, I related the story of how God used circumstance, His Word and His Peace to give me hope that my son, would indeed receive an engineering co-op, but not in a conventional way. Just what did God mean? What was the present-day application of the story of Paul’s shipwreck?
A few days after the call from Donovan’s co-op advisor, I went out to breakfast with a good friend who also happens to the wife of a plumber. As I finished telling her about the riding stable counting as a co-op, I said with a laugh, “Your husband doesn’t need a co-op student by any chance?”
Imagine my surprise when she said, “He’d LOVE to have a co-op student!” By the middle part of the next week, the arrangements were made. My son would start the following week, on the last possible “start-date” to still call his job a co-op. Though not an engineering job, per se, my son used many of his learned skills in the planning of such things as basement replumbing and well-digging. At the same time, he spent invaluable time learning practical skills in plumbing, heating and air conditioning.
Unconventional?
Yup.
Practical?
Absolutely!
There would be just one semester in school before the third co-op term. This time I put the co-op in God’s hands, and waited to see what would happen.
Unfortunately, my stand in faith only lasted until the first round of applications did not procure my son a job. “Lord,” I said, “are You going to give me a hint, like You did last time, whether or not he will get a co-op?”
I immediately began to chide myself for my lack of faith, and I said, “Lord, forget what I just said. I put the co-op back in Your hands!”
The words, “Exodus 3:17,” popped immediately in my head, and as I reached for my Bible, I could feel the overwhelming presence of God’s Spirit: “And I have said that I will lead you up out of the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites…to a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Wow! What a promise!
Five more weeks went by. During this time my son applied for hundreds of jobs, interviewed for one, but was still without a co-op. I again approached God. “So, when is this miracle going to happen?”
I was immediately overwhelmed with the idea that his co-op arrangements would begin to manifest themselves sometime in the next two days.
The very next day he received the invitation for an interview. He interviewed the following week, and by the day after the interview, he had procured a 2-semester engineering co-op.
God’s wisdom is free for the asking, friends. We have no need to worry about a thing. But when we fall into that worry-trap, He is there to pull us back out. He is ready to give us promise upon promise and to fill our hearts with peace. All we have to do is submit ourselves completely to His will, to open our hearts to hearing His voice, and He will guide. He will use His Word, circumstance, and peace of mind to help us access His wisdom.
But are these the only ways for God to speak to us?
Not to the heart that is tuned into His Spirit. Please join us next week for Hearing God’s voice of Wisdom, Part 2, as I related the story of how God communicated His Wisdom to me that it was time to get a new car!
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two, Author — “Aboard God’s Train — A Journey With God Through the Valley of Cancer”, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries. Follow Lyn on Twitter @lynchaffart.
(To access the entire “Hearing God’s Voice of Wisdom” mini-series, please click here.)