2 Peter 3:8-9, Acts 10, 11 and 12

Mike Davies reflects on how God often does the unexpected.

Mike Davies

Life has its up and downs, but generally we expect tomorrow will be much the same as today.

I constantly remind myself that the Lord could come again at any time, but still I plan my holidays, purchase a diary for the whole year and start to fill it out with appointments.

In July 2016, I started a daily update on my Facebook page and Twitter feed. I thought that if each day I awoke with the purpose of seeking the Lord for a few lines of inspiration, then that couldn't be a bad thing. To make it more important I would let everyone else know, hence putting it on Facebook and Twitter.

Pumped up and going into the New Year, I started to question why I had never done this before. It's quite simple. I wait on the Lord until I sense direction, or purpose for my day. I then try and write this down within a few sentences for Facebook and condense it to 140 characters for Twitter.

Building on this, the Lord placed it on my heart to take fasting and prayer seriously. I thought I had always, but it occurred to me that fasting usually happens when there is a desperate need rather than being part of my ongoing walk with the Lord.

I started to teach on the importance of prayer and fasting and found that as I ministered to the Lord, He have me strength and peace. This happened to such an extent that I started to feel a deeper desire to pray and be close to God.

This was going well, when I went down with a virus that totally knocked me out and of which I am still recovering.

Having been quite ill, it took me off my stride in prayer and intimacy. This virus had been a surprise that I had not expected, but to be honest I should have expected it. Nobody is exempt from sickness or distraction.

The Bible is full of the unexpected. This week, I spoke to over 300 primary school children about Jonah going to Nineveh and how the people changed their minds and turned to God and were saved. Jonah had been angry that God hadn't punished the people. I read an extract from Corrie Ten Boom's book, The Hiding Place. The children certainly didn't expect Corrie to speak forgiveness into the life of an ex-Nazi guard.

Joseph would have been very surprised to discover that Mary was expecting and that she would be the mother of Jesus.

Paul, when he was still known as Saul never expected to meet Jesus on the Damascus road. Saul of Tarsus' conversion was certainly unexpected by other Christians around at the time.

The Apostles must have been surprised when they found out that the church was for Jew and Gentile.
Reading through Chapters 10, 11, and 12 in the Books of Acts you see lots of the unexpected.

Do we have a God that likes surprises? I think we do. We may consider today to be similar to that of yesterday, but we have a God who is very much involved in the unexpected as well as the expected.

As Christians should we be surprised at how God involves Himself in our lives? Surely, we should seek to walk so closely with God that we expect the unexpected?

I remember on one of our visits to Kenya, our group had spent our money, giving it to a local project for orphans. We were so swept away with compassion that we failed to realise that we had no money to feed ourselves and no way of getting any money in the foreseeable future. It was then that we found a $20 note in the litter, which fed and watered us.

On another occasion, I was ministering in South Africa and felt exceptionally tired, as the rest of my team had gone down with an illness. It was in this moment when God gave me a word about love for a young girl who was sitting next to her mother in a meeting of many hundreds of people. The God of the unexpected stepped in. The young girl had confided in her mum and explained that she no longer believed that God loved her. I, having no knowledge of the girl, or her mother, delivered a word to her telling her that God had told me to remind her that He loved her. This saw quite an amazing response in which she re-committed her life to Jesus. Did I do anything special? No. Did Jesus? Well, yes.

We have a God of the unexpected. Don't let your tomorrow be the same as today. Let tomorrow be a whole new adventure when you step into the wonders of God.

Please feel free to contact me for prayer, or to follow me on Twitter @mikedavies2