In a fallen world so full of unpredictable circumstances, it’s easy to get confused about what God is doing. We feel like He wan
ts us to head in one direction and then that door seems to be closed. Sometimes I (Jeff) struggle to know how hard to try to make something happen and whether that would be operating under my own strength and plans instead of God’s.
In Acts 16, the apostle Paul encountered this too when he tried to go to spread the Word of God to Asia and to Bithynia, but both times God stopped him. Later in the passage, Paul gets a vision of a man from Macedonia asking for help, and he and Silas conclude that this must be the Lord’s new leading. But when they eventually do go to Macedonia, they are harassed for days and days by a demon-possessed girl and when they stop her, they are thrown in prison for it! Do you think for at least a moment, Paul and Silas wondered, “what are you doing, God? I thought you told us to come here.” Of course God uses both the girl and the jailer as part of a greater story that grew a faith community in that city for generations!
Just like Paul, we are making sure to obey our fir
st calling (called to be His children) and trusting the Lord to complete the good works He calls us to and begins in us along the way. Why not take a minute to ask God whether He wants something for you that isn’t what you had planned?
Grant Ministry 