Are Life’s Detours from God?

In the early days of the church, we read in Acts that Ananias was given a difficult and scary assignment. An unexpected “detour”. God spoke to him in a dream, “Go…”

“Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ And he said, ‘Behold, here am I, Lord'”
And the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire of the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying…” (Acts 9:10, 11 NAS)

What do you think?

Are life’s detours from God or from our own making?
How can we know for sure? How did Ananias know?
How do we find God’s Straight Street where our ministry awaits?

If I were Ananias, I might say something like this: “YIKES! What was that again, Lord? Go to see Saul, the persecutor of Christians? I must not have heard your correctly. He is an angry man. He is hopeless. Have you heard what he is doing? Let’s re-think the plan, Lord!”

Now Ananias was afraid, like you or I would be, because Saul had the reputation of being on a campaign to kill believers…Christ followers.This was a detour Ananias had not expected. A twist when he wanted to turn.

But Ananias chose to obey.

We know three important things about Ananias. He was afraid. He loved God. He obeyed. And, when we read further, we see the beautiful outcome of Ananias’ obedience to go to Straight street to minister to Paul, in spite of his fear of the man.

The church I attend has as its mission statement: Love God, Love People, Go Serve. Sounds like that is exactly what Ananias did!

What about you?

Have you ever been on a trip and run into a major detour—with lots of confusing arrows directing the cars where to go?
Does your life sometimes feel as if it is like one of those roads under construction—all detours with a bunch of twists and turns?
Are you sometimes so afraid of taking the wrong turn that you actually miss the blessing God intended?
Is He telling you something specific right now? Let’s talk about it! Click the Red button below to contact me.

Ananias KNEW His Shepherd. He recognized His God speaking. And he trusted Him, in spite of his fear!

We each have our individual God-given assignments.

We are all different. With different assignments. Some more overt than others. Some on foreign soil. And some in our prayer closet or serving locally. The more time we spend getting to know the Lord through spending time in His Word…THEN…the more we, too, can recognize our Shepherd’s voice sending us through the twists and turns of life. And we then willingly follow the arrows pointing us to our own personal “Straight” streets of obedience. And we, too, will love God, love people, and GO serve! Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus!

Until next time,
God bless you bunches!
Awaiting His shout,

The MomCourager™