Enjoying Everyday Life
Warning: Life’s Little Interruptions May Result in Shared Happiness
Do you ever wish you had a “Do Not Disturb” sign flashing above your head? It’s one of the things I sometimes wish God would let me get away with because when I am doing something, I want to be fully committed to it―and I am usually doing something. But I still believe God wants us to be ready for interruptions. Let me explain why.
Every miracle Jesus did, He did while He was on His way somewhere and got interrupted by somebody. Actually, the Bible shows us that He made Himself interruptible.
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In Matthew 8, Jesus took time to meet with God on the mountain and then came back down with a purpose―to teach and minister to the people. The Amplified Bible says “great throngs followed Him” (v. 1). First a leper asked Him for a healing. Then a centurion asked if his servant could be healed. People just came up to Him with every problem they had. If you read the chapter, it just goes on and on.
Well, if we truly want to be used by God, we also need to be interruptible. Now, I’m not saying we have to solve every problem we see; we just need to follow as the Holy Spirit leads.
The Importance of Noticing People in Need
There’s another great example of this in the Bible―the story of the Good Samaritan.
A man had been robbed and beaten and left on the side of the road. And while he was lying there, a priest and a Levite passed by him and went on their way, but a Samaritan man―in other words, an unbeliever―“went to him and dressed his wounds…set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him” (Luke 10:34 AMP).
I think it’s important to point out that the Samaritan was going somewhere. He probably had just as much to do as the priest and the Levite, but he had enough compassion to stop what he was doing, change his plans and help the troubled man.
And he didn’t stop there. Luke 10:35 (AMP) says, “The next day he took out two denarii [two day’s wages] and gave [them] to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I [myself] will repay you when I return.”
Maybe we’re only willing to go so far. Maybe we have our limits. But I believe God wants to stretch them.
Stretching the Limits of Your Love
Acts 10:38 tells us that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with strength and ability in power, and that He went about doing good because God was with Him.
When you go about, do you have the time to smile? Do you have time to let someone get in line ahead of you when you’ve got a gigantic cart full of groceries? How do you see Jesus working through you?
I think many times when we think we’re in the wrong place, we’re exactly where God wants us to be. And if we will take the “Do Not Disturb” sign off our life and begin to make ourselves available to God, we will have the privilege of sharing in the happiness He brings to other people’s lives.
Here’s where we need to start: Be available to God.
You know, your time alone with God is the one thing you need to protect. Then the rest of the day, we need to be open to what He’s saying. So go with your plan…until He interrupts it. And when He does, whatever time you spend doing what He asked you to do, trust that He will redeem it back to you. Don’t doubt for a minute that if you will stop your plans for God, He will move heaven and earth to help you in your own time of need. Remember, we’re blessed to be a blessing, and the bigger blessing we are, the more blessed we will be.
