Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
The nutrition class our daughter strongly recommended we enroll in cost $500 for the two of us—a lot of money for folks living on a somewhat limited income. But Melissa’s enthusiasm and strong recommendations influenced us to join—we would be introduced to which foods were healthy, which were loaded with dubious chemicals, a professional trainer would be provided for three sessions, and we would be assigned certain books to read and certain DVDs to watch. In addition, the nutrition teacher would take us to a nearby healthy-food market and walk us through the aisles.
Then the class was cancelled due to low registration.
We hadn’t really considered what we would do with the $500 we hadn’t spent on learning about good nutrition, when Willie Martinez knocked on our front door. He has done painting for us in the past. He is an excellent worker, affordable, and last year, I had asked him to give us an estimate on the cost to paint the outside of our house—a job that badly needs to be done.
“Karen,” my husband called. I was in the basement. When I reached the living room, there were Willie and David. “Willie wants to know if you still want the house painted. He has time and could schedule something in the weekend before July 4.”
“Absolutely,” I replied. And then we were both quiet—how were we going to pay for Willie’s reasonable fee? “Well,” Willie suggested. “You could pay me $500 to begin, and another $500 later…”
Our unspent $500 from the cancelled nutrition class!—David and I both took this as a sign that since we had the first installment, God would certainly provide for us and for Willie with the last two.
We told him to go ahead and start, and thanked God for this unexpected promissory payment.
This God Hunt Sighting is an answer to prayers made last summer when we had some unexpected funds come our way to do much-needed repairs on our neglected home. We just didn’t have quite enough to include Willie’s most needed skills. This summer, however, it looks as though that prayer is going to be answered.
I spy God.
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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.
Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.
Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.
For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.
Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.