I am continually amazed at both how the Lord orders our steps and how He teaches us along the way.
Today I was supposed to be in Macedonia with our MAPS team from New Life to minister with a missionary for a week. The night before we were scheduled to leave, we discovered an issue with one of team members’ passport. Long story short, it didn’t work out for us to make the trip at this time.
Here’s the thing: Everyone on the team had a peace about. Our families had a peace about it. There is a strong sense that this is right and that we were not supposed to go right now.
Why? I don’t know. But God knows.
Why then, if the Lord was going to slam the door shut at the last minute, did He let us go through all of the preparation and fight the battles necessary to make the trip?
I don’t know. But God knows.
And I do have a clue about it, at least for my part. Through a series of events and trends, a significant financial need arose the week before we were to make the trip. It was severe enough that I was very concerned, and getting pretty upset.
So what happened? Well, without going into details, the Lord spoke through a series of experiences and encounters to show me that I was not walking by faith regarding His provision. Once I came to that realization, I repented and found a good measure of peace. And then the next day, God supernaturally met the financial need.
I learned something about my own heart and about God’s provision, all in one whack.
Sometimes we are too consumed with what is happening to us and around us, and we miss what God is wanting to do IN us.
There’s a great line in the first Matrix movie (the only installment of the trilogy worth watching, by the way), where Neo is coming to realize that he is “The One,” even though the Oracle had indirectly led him to believe that he was not. Morpheus says to him, “There is a difference between knowing the Path and walking the Path.”
We don’t always know what path we are on, and we sometimes are on a different path than we believe. But this I know: When we commit our lives to Jesus Christ, He orders our steps and directs our paths.
I’m taking great comfort in that today.
(By the way, were were able to keep our plane tickets and are planning to make the trip next spring. So, now we get to take more people!)