We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps. Proverbs 16:9
We call them interruptions, but they may be something very purposeful and powerful.
The Bible tells the story of two of Jesus’s disciples who were going about their daily business. Peter and John were heading to the temple for mid-afternoon prayers when they were confronted by a beggar. They could have simply passed him by. But instead, they stopped and looked at the man (Acts 3:4). Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk,” and the man’s crippled feet and ankles were instantly healed! Off he went, walking, leaping and praising God with Peter and John, into the Temple for prayers (Luke 9:3, Acts 3:6-8).
What seemed like just an interruption of Peter and John’s day would set in motion an unbelievable chain of events: the church would grow to 5,000, be persecuted, be forced to leave Jerusalem and then, through the conversion of Paul, go global. One interruption was the turning point for the Church.
The story of the healed beggar is a powerful reminder that, as we simply go about our lives, God intervenes to bring about His miraculous purposes in our lives.
“The great thing, if one can,” wrote C.S. Lewis, “is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is … that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life that God is sending one day by day.[1] The next time your day gets rudely interrupted, look hard for God’s fingerprints. It’s possible He’s at work.
[1] Lewis, C. S. (n.d.). A quote from the collected works of C.S. Lewis. Goodreads. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/44447-the-great-thing-if-one-can-is-to-stop-regarding
