Have you ever seen a project that started out right take a turn in another direction? Perhaps the people involved lost focus or the situation that made it possible dissolved. I’ve had that happen to me at least 3-4 times in the last 4 years.
In each of the projects or events, God placed it on my heart in advance to not continue what I was doing. What always followed was a change in circumstances that I could not control. The opportunity or project changed or ended. God had prepared me for the inevitable, and He replaced the opportunity with another. It was time to move on.
Things won’t always change or end when God tells you to move on to something else. Sometimes you are standing where someone else needs to be standing, or you are not standing where you need to be standing.
After seeing this happen so often in a short span of time, I know to watch for the door to appear as God leads me to the exit ramp. When the ramp appears, I bow out gracefully or I simply don’t recommit.
What does the ramp look like? It may look like an event that changes its vendors. It may look like a contract expiring. It may look like someone else showing up with more time to commit to the project. It may look like the need you were meeting no longer exists.
Consider Joseph’s exit ramp. He did not have to find it; it found him!
Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
Genesis 37:28
Joseph’s brothers tossed him in a pit, and then sold him. Sometimes God has to move us in order to use us where He wants to use us. We know that God moved Joseph to Egypt and then used him.
Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Genesis 45:5-7
Instead of being upset or disappointed when God places it on your heart to stop what you are doing, watch for the exit ramp! Bow out gracefully, and be encouraged! God’s got something else waiting for you!
LIFE APPLICATION
Key Focal Verse:
I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
Psalms 34:1-2
Today’s challenge is to pray that you will be able to accept the will of God even when it means you must not continue doing something you love. Pray for wisdom to find the door. If need be, watch for the next opportunity, and then bow out gracefully.
If someone you know is facing a hard decision about changing careers or discontinuing a project, pray for them to have the courage to follow God’s will for their life. Remember, God has the perfect plan!