A Testimony: God's Incredible Foreknowledge Of Our Finances #026
When I was growing up, we used to have dedicated time in our church services for testimonies. I always enjoyed these times because they were usually spiritually affirming. Almost always showing a God deeply embedded and active in the mundane actions of life. However, as time went on and services became more packed, and perhaps *produced*, the testimony portion of services slowly went to the wayside. Mainly because they were always unpredictable and sometimes awkward. Nevertheless, I miss them.
Last week I shared our getting out of debt story:
and we have an incredible update I would not have predicted. And I want to flesh it out a bit in order to show God foreknowing and moving in the sidelines of the last 4 1/2 years of my wife and mine’s life. But, I’ll lead with the conclusion for those who might not read the full breakdown.
The bank we refinanced our student loan with found they owed us money in an audit and are sending us a check close to $1,000.
That does not tell the whole story so buckle up, it’s testimony time!
God Of The *Just So Happens*
Angela and I sat on the back porch of my parent’s house talking with my uncle and parents about our debt-free journey. My uncle had started coming down to help my papa with upkeep on my grandparent’s house and it worked out that Angela and I could be there that weekend. While we were talking, he mentioned that his cousin had told him about a bank that was offering programs to help students refinance their student loans. We were at 6% on our last refinance and this bank apparently offered 2%. That would be a HUGE help in our journey!
We looked up this bank, First Republic Bank, and found out that they actually had a branch in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was the only branch they had in Florida and we just so happened to live there. This was huge because First Republic does not open their program to people who aren’t in the same city as their branch and at that time they only had branches in 8 cities nationwide. We also were planning on moving to Jacksonville, FL so we quickly jumped on the opportunity - and promptly got denied. Our student debt was just below the threshold.
Angela and I were bummed but we started looking for other banks that maybe had the same program. A few weeks later we heard back from the agent we were working with at First Republic with good news, they had lowered the threshold and we now qualified. We were just a month or two away from moving so I quickly went down to the office to start the process. A week later the agent we worked with personally came to our house, with cookies, to sign the final paperwork. We were stunned!
Just to recap: We just so happened to see my uncle, who just so happened to hear from his cousin in California, about a program that was only available in 8 cities across the United States, one of which we just so happened to live in, not too long after we started getting out of debt. After we signed that refinanced loan, I couldn’t help but notice the hand of God behind all of them just so happens.
God Foreknows, Even Audits
Fast forward to yesterday (12/8/21) and I get a suspicious email notification on my phone from First Republic with an encrypted message. Inside the email is a notice that since Angela and I had paid off the school loan early (by almost 3 years) we qualified for a rebate of close to $1,000. I was stunned. I knew about this program, but when I had looked into the rebate after paying off the loan a little over 3 1/2 years ago I did not think we qualified. I immediately called their customer service and after going through all the *confirm your identity hoops* the representative told me it was a valid email and we’d be receiving the check by mail. Yesterday also just so happened to be one month till Angela’s due date.
Foreknowledge is a tricky subject in Christian and non-Christian circles because of the implications it has on free will. While I’d love to go into detail on what I think about the subject I want to keep it as simple as I can. So here are the basics.
Foreknowledge, “refers to the all-knowing, omniscient nature of God whereby He knows reality before it is real, all things and events before they happen, and all people before they exist.”(Source) Throughout the Bible, we see that God knows the future and sees us, our lives, and even the end of our days before we were conceived and plans accordingly (Psalm 139:15-16). Further:
The foreknowledge of God is far more than His ability to “see the future”; His foreknowledge is a true “knowing” of what will come to pass, based on His free choice. He decrees what will come to pass. In other words, foreknowledge is not just intellectual; it is personal and relational. (Source)
What struck me about that email yesterday is that I was not even looking into the rebate? About 3 weeks ago I was clearing out my Chrome bookmarks and I still had First Republic in one of my folders. I just so happened to log in out of curiosity to see if they had a branch in our area and apparently that triggered the audit. What caused me to do that? It could be incidental and, yes, maybe even coincidental, but when looking at things in total I doubt the doubt that it was not God’s hand.
He Knows My Daughter
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:15-16
When looking at all of these events in hindsight it’s easy to see a divine hand weaving events, actions, and even non-Christians for my family’s good. In Psalm 139:13-14 Scripture records that God foreknows us, creates us (knits us), and sees our very being (personality, dispositions, etc). The next verses, 15-16, record that our days were formed before they were days and He is purposeful in how He weaves that story till the end. I can’t help but see God’s weaving culminating in that email exactly 30 days before my daughter’s due date. Providing us an amount that will likely cover a majority of the cost of her birth. But that weaving started 5 years ago! Way before my daughter was even a possibility. Her story was being written long before she existed. God was planning for her even through 4 years of infertility. God was weaving her story while comforting us and encouraging us through some of the hardest years of our lives.
But, yet, doubt STILL trickles in to this thick head of mine. There’s a part of me, a rather annoying superstitious side of me, that wonders about saying that last paragraph out loud. What if something happens? Does that prove God was not weaving everything? Does the end result negate the means?
I try not to always believe my doubts. In other words, I doubt my doubts. And that makes room for faith which, in this case, reminds me of one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture:
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18
The same hand that just so happens to provide is also able to deliver. But that’s the key, just because He is able does not mean He will. Ability does not mean action any more than inaction means a lack of ability. And that, along with testifying to all the ways He’s weaved our lives and our daughter’s lives up till this point, gives me great comfort.
And I think that is what makes a good testimony. Not just highlighting all the good, but being honest about what we are going through while God is working the good. And how God still overcomes and provides even when we doubt it or even sometimes inadvertently sabotage it. He alone is the author of life.