September 2
Ecclesiastes 9-10
Psalm 101:1-4
Proverbs 21:25-26
Ephesians 2:1-10
Divine Appointments
“For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 HCSB
As you all know, I am a planner. If I am going on a trip, I plan the itinerary. I know where we will stay, where we will eat and what activities we will do. I even plan unstructured time because my family likes time to just chill. They make fun of me, but as a result, things go more smoothly because we are not scrambling to find a place to eat, and we don’t waste time trying to figure out what we are going to do. I am almost that structured in my day-to-day life as well. I make lists every day and check off my list. Unfortunately, this can lead to frustration and irritation when things don’t go the way I planned. This has always been a struggle for me, but I am beginning to recognize that often when things don’t go as I plan, it is God setting up divine appointments for me. Thinking back over the last few months, I can think of several times when my plans got altered that resulted in me being able to minister to someone that I would not have been able to if I had been on my schedule. Instead of getting frustrated, I am learning that His schedule is always better than mine. Admittedly, I am still growing in this area and there are more times than not that I still get irritated in the moment. When I look back at it, I can see how God orchestrated my timing so that I would be at the right place at the right time, or He made me aware of a need that I was able to meet because I was not off doing something else I had planned to do. Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (NIV)
I sometimes miss these divine appointments because I am too fixated on my plans to take time to recognize the opportunities He puts in front of me. This verse in Ephesians may be referring to big things in our lives like our career path or ministry opportunities, but I also think it is referring to these everyday little things that may not seem like a big deal at the time but may be God intervening in someone’s life for a specific purpose. He knows our hearts and minds and He knows the exact time to send someone to tell us what we need to hear. He can use us to bring that message if we are listening to His prompting. An encouraging word to someone who is really struggling, a smile when someone is having a bad day, a big hug to someone who is feeling unloved, a wise word of advice for someone who is struggling to make a decision, dropping what you are doing to help someone else with a task, or just providing a listening ear for someone who is hurting may alter your plans slightly, but may have a huge impact on someone else. The more we allow God to use us to be His hands and feet to the world around us, the more we will find ourselves in these divine appointments that only He could orchestrate.
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