“When your preparation meets God’s purpose — your time connects with His time — you are ready to move from detour to destiny.”-Dr. Tony Evans
In Chapter 7 “The Promotion of Detours”) of Detours, Tony Evans empathizes with the frustration of “flying” in a holding pattern. Since you don’t know when the plane called destiny will land, you find yourself losing hope. Hence, Tony encourages you to remember, when looking at life’s detours, that God crafts:
- your destination while He develops you
- a purpose while developing a person
Therefore, from Joseph’s example, we pick up on two clues that help us recognize when God’s ready to bring us to the end of a detour.
1. God disappoints you just when you thought He was coming through. Sometimes God doesn’t work the way we believe He should. God works in His own mysterious ways. Why? Because He knows what works best for each unique person.
So, Dr. Evans points out, this disappointment really reflects a time when God is telling you, “Get ready for where I’m taking you.” In addition, God’s also preparing the place (or person) to which He’s taking you. Your detour’s also about the other people in your life. God cares about them and their good as well.
2. God wants to be sure He’s given the credit for what happens. Consequently, when God does His thing in your life, He desires all the glory- not sharing the credit. Furthermore, God wants to :
- strip you of you
- break you of your own self-dependence
- remove your sense of self-sufficiency, your independence
- totally depend on Him
In conclusion, Dr. Evans brings the above two concepts together. He writes:
“When God disappoints you- just when He looked like He was coming through for you– He does so in order to increase your awareness of your dependency on Him and not you. . . . That’s the best place you can be because that’s when God finally gets the chance to be God to you.”
Today’s question: What steps must you take so your preparation meets God’s purpose? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Luck, chance, or happenstance”
