In 2014 I read the book, The Sacred Echo, by Margaret Feinberg. It's about hearing and recognizing the repetitive voice of God when He speaks. God is always speaking—actively working in our lives, even when we don't see Him. Even if all seems silence, He is, all the while, relentlessly sending out sacred echoes to get our attention.

One of these moments happened a few weeks earlier during a Sunday morning worship service. I noticed that standing in front of the first row of seats, there was a person interpreting the words of the songs and message through sign language. It occurred to me as I watched, that God can speak to us in different ways. Even if we sometimes question His voice, He sends echoes of His Word—"signing" each ripple with the same message again and again until we notice. 

One of the repetitive words God seemed to be speaking to me during that season of my life was that He is always actively working in my life—putting people and circumstances in my path, meticulously arranging divine encounters. Proverbs 16:9 says that we may plan our course, but the Lord establishes our steps. Always a step ahead, He directs, plans and prepares the path before us. Taking our intended course and redirecting it with divine intent, even if we are unaware.

Another one of these sacred echoes occurred as I was reading the story of Rahab who lived in the city of Jericho. Jericho was a well-fortified and seemingly unconquerable city located at the entrance of the Promised Land. Jericho had to be conquered before the Israelite could assume possession of the land. Two spies were sent into Jericho to scout out the city. Welcoming the spies, Rahab hid and protected them. But it wasn't just a happenstance or an accidental meeting. It was a divine appointment, well planned and orchestrated by God. Arranged before the beginning of time, He chose Rahab as a means of salvation. In return, Rahab's life was spared when Israel conquered the city. She later married an Israelite, and her ancestral line includes Christ, the Savior.

These scriptures remind me that even when I least expect it, God is working in my life. And even though all the events don't seem to go as I planned, He orders my steps so that I don't miss my intended destiny. God has a way of taking my encounters and reworking them for the better. Even when things look useless, He can refashion them into tremendous life-giving events. He takes even the worst circumstances in my life and redeems them. Buying them back, He recycles them. Returning them to me once again—reworked into greater purpose. Just as in the story of Jericho, God often hides the seeds of my salvation in the strongholds of my Jericho moments.

I had several other of these encounters with those echoes recently. Prayers that were sent out years ago that suddenly brought me back into a moment where I had to stand face-to-face with a seemingly indelible mark of hurt and disappointment that robbed me of a place of strength and faith. Again God was faithful to recycle those echoed prayers into an answer of tremendous breakthrough. A divine boomerang that came back into my life bringing healing and renewed faith at just the right time, a moment in time, when what was sent to rock my world, God used to heal secret places in my heart.  

He goes to great lengths to unveil His hidden plan. For years I struggled with my weight, but God recalled my circumstances. Racked with obesity, sickness and disease, God reached out and took my life. He redeemed my plight. Teaching and guiding me through each season of my life, He reworked the events. Turning them into something worthwhile, He sends them out again to accomplish their intended purpose. Not just for my benefit, but for many others who will read my story and find hope and encouragement.

Consider for a moment your sacred echo. Is there a thread that seems to repeat the same message day after day, season after season? Don't give up. Your salvation awaits. It may be hidden from view, but you can rest assured that planted within the hard shell of seeming disaster, God has placed the seeds of hope and renewal. He will take the clouds of doom and recycle them—sending them out again to refresh and renew those in your path who need them. Jericho moments, released for greater purpose.

Listen. Can you hear the sacred echoes? Echoes of God's love and grace ripple on.