Don't you love it when God confirms something in your life, maybe through prayer, a verse, a conversation, a song, or just something too incredibly random? I do, and I don't.
I don't love it because it means that things are really about to change, and change usually scares me if I am flat out honest with it. But I do love it because that means I am hearing from the Lord, and what is about to happen is for my good and God's glory.
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For Mary, can you imagine being interrupted by God like she was? Oh hey, you're going to give birth the the Savior of the entire world, you're not married, the birth will be miraculous, and you're definitely going to be an outcast in society from here on out.
Or for Joseph? Oh hey, your fiancé is pregnant and you're NOT the father, but marry her anyway. Raise the child, but your entire family is going to be hated.
In my life? There are plenty examples when I get news (not from an angel of the Lord by any means) but shocking news. I am sure you can think of several instances in your own life where life went completely opposite the way you had imagined.
For us, interruptions usually come at a huge inconvenience or really big blow to us because we are not ready for them. We aren't expecting them, and certainly aren't welcoming them. Pastor Monty encouraged us to be like Jesus's earthly father Joseph, a man of God who listened and did what God commanded. (Matthew 1-2) He lived his life willing to be interrupted by God.
I think the key to being willing to be interrupted is knowing just who is calling the shots in life, and that's God.
"God has the right and the authority to interrupt your life at any time"
-Pastor Monty Guice @ Swift Creek Baptist Church
Romans 8 promises us that whenever God interrupts us, it is for our good and for his glory. What more could we want!? Would we really want things to go the way we initially wanted, when whatever God has planned is for our best!? No. One thousand times, no.
Think about it this way. Of the two greatest interruptions in the world, they both deal with Jesus.
Jesus, a king, being born to a virgin woman in a filthy, smelly stable during the cold winter months.
Jesus, a king, crucified naked on a cross next to criminals without himself committing a single sin.
These two interruptions were by no means convenient for anyone. It involved humiliation, being an outcast, rejected by others. It meant dying to themselves, it meant submission. It was for their good, and God's glory.
If God had not interrupted our lives, we would never have salvation. If God had not stopped you in your tracks, opened your eyes to the glory of himself and his goodness, you would never choose to follow Jesus in your own power. What good and glory that interruption brings.
So for me, my Word of the Year that I had chosen a few weeks ago, "FLEXIBLE" takes on an ever deeper meaning.
For me, "FLEXIBLE" now is going to mean keeping my eyes open to being interrupted by Christ so that he receives the glory. It's listening to his calling. It is being in tune with his word. It is humbling myself before the mighty God he is, and submitting myself and all the crazy unplanned things of my every day to him.
God's interruptions aren't always convenient, or pretty, or fun to walk through, but he promises that it is for our good and his glory (even if we can't see the silver lining in the start).
And you don't want to be the one to argue our good and his glory with the Maker of the universe.
Live flexible.
Live interrupted.
Do you feel like you have a hard time welcoming the divine interruptions in your life?
How do you live out "flexibility" in your daily life?
Love,
