“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” – Isaiah 55:8-9.
God is infinite and we are not, period. We often do not understand what God is doing in our lives and it causes us to fret. But the bible gives us passage after passage that lets us know that the Lord is in control of our lives, our church, and the thousands of ministries and other Christians he has around the world. Our God is a big God. He knows when a sparrow hops along the ground or dies and he knows when countries, like America, were being formed as Ben Franklin noted at the founding. He knows all about your health issues, your financial issues, the children’s issues you might be facing. He knows about your dreams and aspirations. He knows what you think about at night as you lay in bed. He knows about the trouble at work you are facing. In short, nothing slips up on God and He is working His plan. Don’t ever think God’s plan will fail. We fail, God does not! I thought I would share a couple of stories about how God works in ways we never saw coming. The unseen hand of God is always present.
Story #1: Let’s travel back to Scotland in the 1600’s. Several ladies were traveling together. These ladies were wealthy, and they were Christians. They knew each other and often talked about the burden they had for their country, Scotland. The churches, mostly Presbyterian, weren’t allowing Gospel Preachers to preach in their pulpits. On this particular day, as the ladies were traveling, their carriage wheel broke in the city of Shotts. The minister of the church in the town was named Mr. Hance. He came to offer help. The good reverend offered the ladies the church manse (a small home the church owned) while he secured a repairman to fix the wheel. The ladies noticed the poor condition of the manse. Once the repair was made the ladies were on their way. However, soon these ladies built another manse to replace the old broken one. Rev. Hance was so moved he traveled to personally thank them. “How could I ever repay you?” he asked. The ladies replied they would like for him to open his pulpit to a Gospel Preacher. He agreed. The date was set, and an evangelist named John Livingstone agreed to come and preach. The date was set for June 20, 1630. The ladies had prayer groups formed and the excitement of the event began to grow. Evangelist Livingstone preached the next day, June 21st, and over 500 men and women from all walks of life in Shotts were saved. All because of a broken carriage wheel and a group of burdened ladies. John Shear told this story in a book he wrote in 1927, “Old Time Revivals.”
Story #2: Bearing Precious Seed Ministry shared this story in the BPS Newsletter in the Fall of 2017. A man had shipped hundreds of Bibles to Baghdad, Iraq, but they were being held up because Customs officials said there were not enough Christians in the country to matter. A Catholic priest (imagine that) heard about the Bibles being held by officials and demanded they be sent to the destination. The Bibles were released and sent to the address on the papers. Box by box, the Bibles were brought into a house and the distribution began. A short time later, gunmen burst into the house and demanded money. The Iraqi Christians said, “We have no money.” The gunmen replied they had been watching the house and had witnessed people leaving with boxes, so they must be selling something. The Christians responded, “The boxes held Bibles and were free.” “What’s a Bible?” The gunmen had never heard of a Bible. After learning what a Bible was, they carried several boxes of Bibles out to their van and left. The story caused this friend of BPS to consider just how God can work. Someone helped him financially to print the Bibles in Arabic. Someone helps him financially ship them to the destination. A Catholic priest got them released and some Islamic gunmen helped take these Bibles into places most people will never attempt to go. God can get His Word to whom He wants.
When I think about my own life, many of the things I thought were terrible turned out to be wonderful. Joseph’s brothers sought to get rid of him, yet God had a plan for him to save a nation and He did it through their evil deed. Joseph told his brothers many years later as he was saving them along with their families, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” God’s plans are always better than ours. That’s one of the reasons we ought to seek the perfect will of God for everything. Our God is a God like none other, may we never forget that. His ways are higher than ours. Let’s trust Him.