When God Disrupts Your Plans

What do you do when God decides to disrupt your plans? You've got everything going in your life and suddenly He comes to introduce His own agenda. 

When I reflect on the birth of Jesus, I can't help but focus on the young Mary who was given the mammoth task of carrying the Saviour of the world in her womb. Matthew introduces the story by narrating, "This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:18 NLT).

Can you imagine the cultural shock and shame! She was earnestly looking forward to the 'big day' when she was going to be officially announced Mrs Joseph. She was looking forward to enter into the marriage with a sense of pride of having kept her purity for her husband. Suddenly, she was told she was to be pregnant!

She was going to be pregnant but still remain a virgin. It did not make sense. I can only imagine what was going through her mind when she received the message from angel Gabriel. She was going to be publicly ridiculed. She was going to lose the man of her dreams. Her plans were to be ruined. "Joseph, her fiancé was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly." (Matthew 1:19 NLT)

What Mary and her fiancé Joseph did not know was that it was God's time to reveal His glory. It was time for God to fulfil the long standing promise of the Messiah. It was God's time to bring on earth the Redeemer and Saviour of the world, "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman..." (Galatians 4:4 NKJV)

I have learned that God's right time (fullness of the time) comes when we least expect it. We are never ready for such. God often makes a promise but not reveal the time when we will receive the promise. He just knows the right time. In our books the timing may be wrong but in His sovereign plan it is always the right time.

Sometimes I want to ask, "But why now Lord?" It seems to me that the Lord does not respond directly to this question. When God decides to unleash His plan, there is little or nothing you can do to change it. He has His own agenda and He wants to accomplish it through you. 

What do you do when God decides to disrupt your plans? The beautiful thing is that even though God chooses to disrupt your plans so that He can run His own agenda through your life, He never forces you into it (we will elaborate on this point in next week's post "When God Seeks For Your Permission"). 

When God comes into your life and wants to introduce His agenda, He never asks if you are ready. Instead He wants to know if you are willing. Are you willing to submit to His authority over your life? Are you willing to allow Him accomplish His purpose using you as His instrument? Are you willing to surrender your life to Him? 

Here is the interesting thing; whether you are willing to allow Him use you or not, it will not stop Him from accomplishing His purpose. But what a blessing it is to be used by God for His own purpose!