Interrupting The Routine

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!’ (Joshua 10:14); ‘Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?’ (Joel 1:2)

These verses are for two different events; Joshua 10:14 is from the account of Joshua asking God to keep the sun up a full 24 hours so that they had the daylight necessary to fight and defeat the Amorites in Gibeon.  Joel 1:2 is an account of pestilence (in this case, locusts) devouring the fields in Israel causing famine and a call of repentance for returning to the Lord in order for the Lord to provide relief to His people.  Yet both describe the events as unique; something that has never happened before or perhaps will never happen again.  One event (Joshua 10:14) could be considered ‘good’ (though the Amorites would probably take the opposite view), while Joel 1:2 is an event that is definitely bad for all involved – at first glance.

What we find out, though, is the actions coming from these events.  The catalyst of the actions that needed to be taken and to move forward were these unprecedented events.  Had the Amorites not been defeated, Israel would not have taken over Canaan.  Had the locust not come and devoured the fields of produce the Israelites depended on, they would not have had a cause to repent at that time.  We all have things occur in our lives that we may initially think, ‘why me, Lord?’.  But the purpose for many things is to prepare us, to have Faith that the Lord will provide for us something we need, either to do or to have. 

Our car, having a loose oil plug and having the oil drained out of it while going down the road – though now running properly for now – is an event that has provided a call to be prepared to replace it.  While this is not of our timing, it is of the Lord’s.  It is a call to first have Faith in His provisions; we currently have a running car and that He is preparing us for a replacement in the future.  Second, it will be in His schedule for us when we replace it, likely sooner than later. 

We want to ‘be ready’ of our own doing, but the Lord wants us to act not when we’re ready but when He’s ready.  Not every ‘bad’ event is bad when we look back.  The jobs that could have taken us away from where we are at today, those that I felt I should have gotten or felt terrible to turn down I now am thankful the Lord gave me the wisdom to stay the course.

Never look at unique events that interrupt the routine as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but look at how the Lord may be preparing you through those events for His purpose!