Divine Appointments
I am so thankful that my life is not built upon good luck and random coincidences.
That behind every event and season of my life is a God at work, orchestrating His divine details exactly suited for me. Every day there are missed opportunities to see the ways God is working. He is always eager to show us His plan, if we dare take the time to seek Him in all of the spaces and places of our lives. I have so many God stories and by the end of my life, my prayer would be that my entire life story is a legacy I can leave behind where God is the one who shines through as the author and creator of my life rather than me!
Writing Bible studies for women is the last thing I would have imagined myself doing at this stage of my life. Clearly all efforts of my works are a work of His Spirit giving me the desire and the wisdom to work outside of my comfort level and use the gifts God has given me. Consequently, this has produced a lot of insecurity within me. Almost daily I am putting my fears and insecurities before God. It is a vulnerable thing to display your heart on pages others are reading and may be critical of. Oh, the impossible things God wants to do in our lives!
A few years, I was working on a Hebrews Faith Journey Study in the café at my church while my kids were in youth group. On this particular evening, I happened to catch this beautiful middle aged woman working on her Beth Moore study. She had her Bible and workbook out and was so engaged in her time with God. It was awesome to watch the Spirit at work in her heart.
I strained my neck to look at Beth’s study and saw pages and pages of her gracious, well thought, and theologically grounded writing. I looked at my Hebrews Study and thought to myself, “Really Lisa, you think you are a writer and that women will be interested in your study?” Instantly, my countenance changed and the enemy began to wreak havoc in my mind. “Quit now. You don’t have time for this. Just use the studies already out there.” How does the enemy mess with you when it comes to those assignments you clearly didn’t sign up for? I am convinced the ones we choose for ourselves, the enemy is not as busy to discourage and mess with us as those God sized assignments.
Defeated and discouraged I packed my bags and began to leave. As I brushed past her table, I caught out of the corner of my eye, a woman sitting at another table with her Bible and was flipping through her study. To my surprise, it happened to be a Faith Journey Bible Study on the Book of Ephesians. I did not know this woman and assumed she was in a group led by two dear friends of mine. Immediately, tears filled my eyes and I knew this was a divine appointment by the Lord to bring some clarity and to affirm what He wanted me to continue pursuing with Him. As I looked up into the moon lit sky, He affirmed the unique voice He has given me to write Bible Studies. In His economy, He needs all of us to raise our voices and not grow weary or defeated because we are not as loud as others, as mature as others, as spiritual as others. He only wants our availability. I told the Lord that night that I would continue to be available for Him to speak through me in writing Bible studies, teaching, and encouraging other Faith Journey Groups to get started until He called me elsewhere.
Having two women sitting side by side at a church café working on two different Bible studies may not appear divine to most people observing. However, for me it was. God used an ordinary circumstance to teach me something extraordinary about Him. It’s not that He needs me to write Bible Studies, He wants me to need Him and allow His grace to flow through me completely! Where do you see God calling you to do the impossible? Is it really about YOU and what you can or cannot do or about God and who He wants to use to bring glory to His Name?
Isaiah 43:1-7 says,
But now, thus says the Lord, your creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed even whom I have made" (NASB).