Giving up Your Parking Spot

Acts 16:6-10

　
　
How does God lead you in your life?

Five days a week I drive to work taking the exact same route. And when I get to the office, unless a customer has arrived before we open and has the nerve to park in my spot, I park in the exact same spot by the dumpster everyday. Paul wasn’t trying to get to the office. He was trying to share the Good News of Jesus wherever God led him. But how would he know where to go?

Paul started his missionary trip with a plan. However, twice in this passage Luke writes that the Holy Spirit or Spirit of Jesus gives specific instructions on where not to go. I wonder if Paul might have been a little frustrated by this. After all, he was the type of man that got things done. He didn’t have patience for things that got in the way of his plans. Just look at the passage from two days ago when he parted ways with Barnabas because of Mark.

God works and leads in our lives in different ways. After twice blocking Paul’s plans (we aren’t told how the Spirit did this), God speaks to him through a vision. Paul doesn’t know what the ramifications are going to be as a result of this change in his plans, but based on his vision, they "got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them".

Following my junior year of college I was trying to make my summer plans. I had an opportunity to spend the summer in California working for Campus Crusade for Christ or going to a Summer Training Program sponsored by an East Lansing, Michigan church. After much prayer and discussion, and a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about the decision, God gave me peace of mind and heart to go to East Lansing.

How does God lead you? Is it through visions or peace of mind in the face of a decision or does the Holy Spirit stop you? However God leads you, the most important thing is to follow Paul’s example of being sensitive to God’s guidance as seen in this passage. And whatever you do, don’t let the routine of daily living keep you from this, even if it means giving up your parking spot.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%2016%3A6-10&version=NIV;MSG
http://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/niv/Acts.16.6-Acts.16.10