Daily Devotional for Sunday, February 19th

Missionaries Following the Leadership of the Spirit

“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed
him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us,” Acts 16:9.

We do not always get our way in life. We make plans, and we have things we want to do. In our minds, our plans are the best ones, are they not? They may actually be great plans. Yet, they are often changed on us. Sometime life just happens. Sometimes, other people change them for us. Our professional lives are like that. Bosses and managers change plans as they see fit, hopefully because they have a better understanding of the overall strategic business plan for an organization. In theory, they understand the big picture. Most of us, in normal circumstances, are quite willing to go with those plans, even if we like ours better. Why? Because that is what is expected. We go with the plans of those over us because we understand that they are probably better than ours.

Many of us ignore God’s calling and the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He calls, we hear it, and we continue forward with our plans as if nothing happened! That seems ludicrous, and yet we do it. Why do we live our regular lives and our Christian lives in such a different manner? Macedonia was not what Paul and Silas had planned. They planned to continue through Asia into other places and spread their message. That was probably a good plan. Yet, a vision appeared to Paul of a man from Macedonia calling the pair to Macedonia to preach the gospel. This man’s plea was simple, “Come over into Macedonia, and help us.”

Paul went. When he and Silas understood that this was God’s call, they went immediately. What about us? Do we argue and ignore, or do we head for our Macedonia?

JUST A THOUGHT
A man from Macedonia may not appear to us, but through God’s Word
and our prayers, the Holy Spirit leads us.

Wally Fry