Receive the Unexpected

Last week I had the opportunity to preach my message of forgiveness at my church. The event turned out to be a great way to spread the gospel and it gave me the chance to lay my hands on those wanting prayer. I had also brought a stack of my new book WHEN FORGIVENESS IS ENOUGH with me that quickly vanished.

The funny thing about the whole thing is that I had written my sermon twice, months in advance, only to accidentally delete both on separate occasions. So I had resolved to prepare my message a week before without any forethought as to what I was going to preach.

Sure enough, that was when I knew God was there with me while I was delivering his message.

I tend to stumble over my words, simply because I race through what I want to say and my mouth has trouble keeping up with all the ideas firing through my brain. In this case, though, I purposely slowed my speech, and with the Holy Spirit leading me, everything I wanted to say, I said.

What happened to me reminds me of what happened to Moses:

“But Moses said to the Lord, ‘Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak’” (Ex. 4:10-12 ESV).

This took place just before Moses and his brother Aaron went before Pharaoh to ask him to let his people go.

I am thinking now if God could do that with me, untie my tongue just as he had done with Moses, imagine what else he could do if Christians lay all their burdens at God’s feet. I say this because I sometimes feel I may be bothering God with what I ask of him. Yet Jesus made it clear that if I ask for my heart’s desire in his name, if it is his will, I would receive it (John 16:24).

Therefore, we should not think it strange when we do not receive what we ask for, because we may have asked for it not needing it. Yet when we do receive our heart’s desire, it was God’s will all along. And that presses us forward to believe even more in Jesus’ sovereignty as King of King and Lord of Lords.

What a wonderful thing to know when life becomes what we do not expect.