Divine Appointments...

"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.  Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'?  I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields.  They are ripe for harvest.  (John 4:34-35)


"God ordains divine appointments for each of us who will let Him work through us.  In God's planning, we will experience opportunities to witness to strangers and casual acquaintances" (The Local Church in Evangelism, p121).  God sets up and gives us opportunities to share our stories, share His story and to pray with people, but we have to be sensitive to when those situations happen.  We have to be aware that those situations are happening.  We need to take that step of faith and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.


There is an old saying - "Opportunity doesn't knock twice."  This is so true.  Every opportunity is unique because people and circumstances are different.  Therefore we cannot get those opportunities back.  I can think of three opportunities I have missed.  Three times that I still think about today where the outcome could have been different.  Three times when I could have reached out to someone else in their time of need.


There is another saying - "Hindsight is twenty-twenty."  That is true for these three opportunities.  I did not see them at the time or I was not confident in the prodding I received from the Holy Spirit.  But I saw them after.  I felt the lost for not reaching out.  I have also learned from these that "we need to be spiritually alert to seize opportunities" (p121).  Colossians 4:2 says "Devote yourselves to prayer being watchful and thankful."  We need to be watchful for those opportunities to seize.  We need to work on our foresight being twenty-twenty instead of our hindsight.  We also need to pray for those opportunities.  "Pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ (Colossians 4:3).


So slow down and be watchful for those divine appointments to seize so you will not carry those regrets later.