Divine Appointments
14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”
Esther 4:16
16 “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
Esther 7:3
3 Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request.
Today I would like to visit with you about divine appointments. So many times, we go through life on autopilot, not really paying attention to what’s going on around us. I would like to encourage you to start paying attention to what God is doing. I have heard people at times mistakenly refer to a divine appointment as a coincidence. As Christians, we know that there are no coincidences.
You may be blessed with a divine appointment in a grocery store, at a ball game, on a plane, or even at some event. Wherever you are, know that if you are walking with God, He wants to use you to share Him with others. We are his ambassadors created for divine assignments. Divine assignments are always orchestrated by God, not us. We are simply His hands and feet carrying out His plan in order to touch the lives of others who needed His help.
As I look back over the years, not only has God used others to orchestrate a divine appointment with me, but He has also used me to carry out divine appointments that He orchestrated for the benefit of others.
One of the examples that instantly comes to mind for me, is the day that I decided to go into a local restaurant here in town to get a bagel.
As I was paying for my food, I struck up a conversation with the cashier that was waiting on me. She mentioned to me that she really wanted to go back to school, but she didn’t know how she would make it to work, and children. If I remember correctly, she was a single mom.
I encouraged her, and I told her that she could do it. I also told her that it would be so worth the sacrifice.
Fast forward about a year to a year and a half later, she showed up at a business event that I was hosting. To be quite honest, I did not recognize her right at first. It was not until she approached me and thanked me for encouraging her to go back to school that I realized who she was. She told me how much my words meant to her that day and how they inspired her to go for her dream of completing her degree.
That my friends were a divine appointment. God used me to help steer her in the direction that He wanted her to go in. I became her nudge. My divine purpose in this situation was to give her a nudge and to help her feel confident that with God’s help, she had everything it took to complete her schooling.
When we yield ourselves to God’s will and His timing and purpose, He can do amazing things through us. Remember, there are no coincidences, only Divine Appointments.