Ephesians 2:10

I didn’t plan to be in Thief River Falls on Monday, but God did. I like a good auction, but

if I buy something I want to make the trip matter. I really needed nothing from the

auction, but if something didn’t have a bid on it, I put $2 on it and went to bed. I won a

grip that I don’t have a gun for and needed to make the trip to pick it up.

My plan was to run to the auction, get some gallons of unsweet iced tea for my wife,

and head home, but God had other plans. Step one and two worked out well, then my

daughter called me. She blessed me by fixing a faucet that I didn’t remember was

broken. She called me asking to grab a new faucet supply line as the old one was too

short, so I went to L&M and grabbed one. God orchestrates things in His timing and

according to His plans.

You know you live in a small town when you drive 45 minutes from home and run into a

friend from church. The 30-minute conversation in the aisles of L&M was a blessing, to

hear of God’s movement and provision for a family was encouraging. I was ready to

head home; dinner was in the oven and would be hot when I got there. Same daughter

called and said we needed cheese for taco night.

My second trip to the big box store was supposed to be a quick one. Go in, get cheese,

get out; that was my plan, but not God’s. A long-time friend who lives 100+ miles from

Thief River Falls, and 60 miles from my house, happened to be at the self-checkout at

the same time as me. We caught up in the parking lot, prayed for one another and our

ministries.

Ephesians 2:10 has been on my mind for the past year or so, there is a blessing to

doing good that God has planned that we might not expect. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For

we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared

beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Then Galatians 6:9-10 says:

9  Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not

grow weary. 10  So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people,

and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

It was my plan to leave Fertile by 4pm, run to Thief, and be home for dinner by 6pm. It

was God’s orchestrated plan for my family to bless me by doing a project, to catch up

with a friend from church, and run into a friend that actively wanted to be a blessing to

me as I prayed for him. God’s plan got me home at 8pm, dinner was quickly reheated

in the microwave, and I have been blessed to share how God used my circumstances to

walk in the good He had planned.

Experiences like these are not uncommon. Are you watching for them? Are you willing

to walk through the good that God has planned? Are you willing to put aside your plans

to allow God to use you? It may surprise you that God’s plan is exactly what you need

when your plans are diverted. Praise God for the blessing of encounters He has

planned.