Change Your Plans

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1526. Today's Devo is called Change youe Plans. Hey there. We're the Alessi's, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Happy Monday, everybody, and welcome to My Morning Devo. This is Stephanie here and I am so excited to dive into our week of devotionals. We have an incredible month planned. I think that this has got to be some of my favorite themes that we've chosen to discuss. And this month we are just diving into the Book of Acts. This book I always forget about, and whenever I read it I'm always like, oh my gosh, this is one of the best books ever. So I'm very excited to dive into it. So let's do it. Today I am reading from Acts 8:26-25. So I've already read the entire chapter of Acts 8. So please do that on your own time. Read all of Acts 8, but I'm going to just zoom in on verse 26-35 in the NIV version. And it says, now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the kandake. I think that's how you say it. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah. The prophet, the Spirit, told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it. Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah. The prophet. Do you understand what you're reading? Philip asked. How can I? He said, unless someone explains it to me? So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth. The eunuch asked Philip, tell me please, who is the prophet talking about? Himself or someone else? Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. This is what I've learned from this story, that God often redirects us for someone else's salvation. And sometimes the most important moments in our lives happen when God interrupts our plans. In Acts 8, Philip, he's in the middle of a very powerful ministry in Samaria. If you read the previous verses, you'll see that Peter and John are there. They're healing people, they're delivering people. Miracles are happening. The momentum for the church is building. And then suddenly, God tells Philip to leave. He tells him to go down a desert road. Not to another cool city, not to another revival, but he tells him to go down a desert road. I've actually been on this road from Jerusalem to Gaza and talk about desert. There is. It's not a pretty route. And that is the road that God told Philip to go down. And from Philip's perspective, it must have seemed very out of left turn. Like, why leave a thriving ministry for an empty desert road? But on that road sat a man, an Ethiopian official, reading scripture and searching for truth. And then Philip has the opportunity to explain the passage about the suffering servant and tell him about Jesus. And the man believes and is baptized immediately. Here's what I know about God. He cares about the crowds. He cares about the mega. He cares about the big numbers. But he also cares deeply about individuals. And sometimes he will take your perfectly wrapped plan for the next five years. He will take your plan for the next six months. He will take your plan for the day, and God will completely interrupt it for his glory and to tell his story. You know, this very devoid the My morning devotional is an example of that. My sisters and I were doing regular church ministry. We were already doing a podcast with our family. We were getting married, we were having kids, like life was lifing. And then out of nowhere, our friend Allison comes to us and says, I have this devo for you guys. Would you like to take it? And a little secret, actually. I told her the first time, no, we don't need this devoid. But then she came back again and she said, hey, I really think you should take it over. So eventually we did. And now what this interruption in our life has become is now a blessing to hundreds and thousands of you every single day. And it took, honestly, one moment of obedience on our part. Sometimes obedience means leaving the visible success to follow God into something that seems small. But what feels like an interruption to us might be someone else's moment of salvation. You know, I was doing really great in ministry. I was serving on the worship team. I was Writing songs, we were putting out albums and then suddenly out of nowhere, in the middle of my five year plan to become a really great songwriter and to put out a bunch of albums, I, I met my husband and we got married and we had two kids and I took this massive 180 from writing songs to now becoming a mom and a wife. And I remember I used to say God, but I still want to be used for songwriting. But God allowed my life and my plans to be interrupted because he knew that in these last five years almost 35 to 40 women in our church were going to become wives and become mothers. And God used that interruption to place on my heart a vision for the young moms in our church, a vision for the young wives in our church. That now what my vision was for songwriting and for and for writing albums, becoming a young mom and helping the young moms in our church is now added to that vision. And God changed my plans for his glory and to tell his story. And if you feel like God is starting to interrupt your plans today, if you feel like he's starting to open up random doors in your job or serving at your church that you never really thought about, just say yes. Just obey and never underestimate what God can do on a road you didn't plan to walk on. You can bring so many people to truth, so many people to Jesus, if you just obey and say yes God, your will, not my will be done. Let's pray. God, we thank you that you use us for your kingdom purposes. And God, we see that there are doors opening, there are doors closing. Jesus, there's opportunities making themselves available and then there's other opportunities that are slowly fading into the background. But God, we follow your path. We just say yes. We stay in obedience knowing that you have a plan for it all. Knowing that you will use this entire story to bring you glory, to tell others about the truth of Jesus Christ and to bring a new hope and a new life to others. So our prayer and our cry is this. Today God, use us. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen. So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend. Leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.