Followers

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

God's carefully planned days

There as a whole verse in one of the worship songs on Sunday that described my Saturday to a tee - “Lord, You have searched me and Know me, You’re familiar with all of my ways, Such is Your knowledge about me, that You carefully plan all my days.”

When God plans the day, He adds in interesting little challenges! The first challenge was a flat battery! I had left the lights on overnight. There was a time when my neighbours would knock on the door and tell me! I phoned a friend who kindly came out to jump start my car. It was kind of an emergency as I had booked myself on a creative writing course and offered people a lift down. I was already running ten minutes late!

Once I had picked up my passengers the car stalled. I put my head down on the steering wheel and prayed that it would start up fine. I suppose in the course of everyday life many people say “Dear Lord” or “Oh God please…” and they are not actually praying but just expressing frustration that things are not going to plan. Mine was a genuine prayer and led to an interesting conversation on the way down. There were lots of questions about my faith – about whether I believed God could do anything, whether I ever felt abandoned by God, whether I was really sure that God loved me and if I believed he did – why did bad things happen?

It was an unexpected conversation and there were plenty of opportunities to testify to God’s faithfulness and share scripture.

It also led to one of the ladies asking me to pray for her. She was going through a difficult time, having just broken up with her boyfriend. She was feeling emotionally fragile, but she had also hurt her arm. We found a quiet corner of the room and prayed together!

I had my own plans for the day – to spend the day writing! God had his own plans and neatly wove them into the day! It was not a church setting, and not on a Sunday, but just as every day life was being lived. It was a natural, unforced and fruitful encounter with God.

No comments: