Our Plans and God's Plans

ACTS IN 90 DAYS

A reading for Monday, August 3, 2020: Acts 16:6-10.

"When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them."

Timothy and Paul had made plans to evangelize and plant churches in Asia. They believed this was the next step in their ministry.

But the Holy Spirit had other plans...

The Bible tells us the Spirit of God prevented them from speaking in Asia, and kept them moving from place to place. Then suddenly Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia pleading for help. He immediately understood this was God's plan.

Many have noted the relevance of this passage for our time and place. A friend posted, "Can we just agree that everybody got the question wrong when asked in 2015 where we saw ourselves in five years?" 2020 will end up as the year when none of what we thought we would be doing we are doing. We were convinced, like Paul, that we knew the next steps.

What if instead of being frustrated, we might take a word from Acts 16 and imagine that perhaps the Holy Spirit has us exactly where we are supposed to be? How would that change the way you live today?

Truth is, Covid or not, that God is still in control and "will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." (Philippians 1:6)

Thanks be to God!