Jul 26, 2023
Hey, it's Mike Henry
with Follower of One. Today, I want to read a very convicting verse
to me.
This is a conviction
to me, and that's part of the reason why I want to read it. I think
it's a challenge to all of us, especially in business, but in any
type of work. Proverbs 16:9, “The mind of man plans his way, but
the Lord directs his steps.” I've been working for the last few
days, doing some strategic planning around the growth of what I
hope the growth will be for Follower of One, and bathing that in
prayer and asking God for his direction, for his wisdom and his
guidance.
And then I would turn
right around and get something- we’d get interrupted. And what I
thought I would be spending my time doing X, I ended up having to
spend my time doing Y. The Lord directs my steps. He ordains
interruptions and circumstances and things that happen in my life,
and I often don't like it.
I've just become a
pouty little child because God's not letting me do what I wanted to
do. The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
I pray constantly. I don't pray constantly. That's an exaggeration.
I pray regularly. That I would be easier to interrupt, that I would
trust God more. My natural instinct is to get angry at
interruptions, not to trust God that He would have me do something
else.
Almost every
interruption, almost everything that takes longer than I thought it
would take, ends up being a blessing to me, if I would just trust
Jesus and do what He says. Today in our workplaces, I would like to
challenge you: let's remember the mind of a man plans his way, but
the Lord directs his steps.
And now let me say
that exactly correctly. I'm reading from the New American standard,
the mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. I
don't really think that references all that gender-oriented. I
think, male or female, we can get all wrapped up in our own goals
and objectives and we forget God, but the Lord directs our
steps.
He's the one directing
us. He's the one choosing what we do. I want to plan to do what God
has for me to do, and that means my plans must include
interruptions. My plans, and my attitude must be good with
interruptions, because God is sovereign. He's the one choosing the
plan. We have a person on one of the recent mission trips talking
about how she had it all planned out that she was going to do her
fastest exercise time walking through her neighborhood, but she
couldn't get any of her timer apps to work, and she was very
frustrated about that. So she took off anyway and she got
interrupted a couple of times on the way and had opportunities to
interact with her neighbors, that she never would have done had she
had the timer ticking.
And it was just God
saying, no, you're walking around the neighborhood today, but I
want you to interact with the people that you come into contact
with. I think God does that with my schedule. That I wire it tight
as a drum, and I'm always in a hurry, and I always have to hurry up
and get to the next thing.
And then an
interruption will occur, or something will take longer, or
something will need to be redone. Lord, may I please have an
attitude of openness to you. And I pray that we all do. That
openness and that willingness to be God's person in our situation
is what makes our faith attractive to the people around us.
I hope today that this
criticism of myself, this challenge I'm giving myself is beneficial
to you in some way. Let's be the people that Jesus calls on today
to make a difference in the lives of our coworkers and bank on it,
that will require some interruptions. Thank you for being a
marketplace minister, and thank you for making a difference with
your faith.
Don't forget if you're
interested in more of this content, check us out at followerofone.org. Thanks very
much.