Daily Devotional for Friday, February 10

The Fulfilled Ministry

“And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry,
and took with them John, whose surname was Mark,” Acts 12:25.

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”—John Steinbeck

Sometimes no matter how much we want or plan for something, things often just do not go the way we intended. I suspect we all know about this and have experienced it.

Paul knew a bit about this as well. He was full of plans, and they did not really unfold as planned. He and Barnabas had just dropped off a mission offering with the church in Jerusalem that they had collected while traveling. Paul’s plan was to go to Rome, then head to Spain to

preach the gospel. Paul later made it to Rome, but never made it to Spain. In Romans 15, Paul wrote to the Romans that he wanted to come see them but was hindered by his current ministry. He did not mean his ministry was in his way, he meant he was not done with it. In our devotional verse, we see that Paul had finally finished his current ministry.

Paul could not go see his friends in Rome because he was busy doing exactly what he was supposed to be doing. We are not done until God says we are done. What we want for the future and what God plans for the future are often not the same thing. We may get tired or frustrated in our current ministry. We may think that it is done. We just have to wait for God to let us know that we are finished. We are to walk through the doors God opens, not beat our way through the ones we want to walk through.

JUST A THOUGHT
Things may not work out according to our plans.
They are, however, always working according to God’s plan.

Wally Fry