Inconvenience: A circumstance or thing that causes problems or difficulties for someone. Trouble or difficulty caused to one’s personal requirements or discomfort
Storytime!! I was catching a Lyft, at around 3 am to make a flight. My first ride got canceled, but Lyft quickly found me another ride. I’m barely awake, slept for maybe 3 hours and I get inside the car and the atmosphere shifted. The driver was playing Gospel music. To you this may seem minor, but for context, I’ve been on a journey of sanctifying what I listen to. This man, I believe sent on assignment by God, sang to Jesus all the way there as if i wasn’t in the car.
I enjoyed my ride and mini worship service and was thankful to God for the minor inconvenience that led me to this beautiful ride. When we got to the airport, I told him how much I was grateful for him picking me up. He said that he wasn’t about to even come. He was so tired, but something wouldn’t let him cancel the previous ride that took him nearby where I was staying. He continues onto say that the ride prior to me, he saved someone from committing suicide.
The Lyft driver said that his goal with his job is not just to work, but to be used by God on whatever assignment He has him do. Even though Micheal was tired, and inconvenienced, God used him to minister to two people. One whose destiny is forever changed, and me, whose walk with Christ just became that more surrendered.
Surrendering to the cause of Christ means to put away your own desires for your life. It means asking God to send you people to minister to, no matter what you had planned. It means listening, obeying and walking in the direction He has for you.
I confess, many times the Lord will put it on my heart to pray for someone. Then my flesh kicks in and I don’t want to inconvenience them. But maybe what I am actually saying is “Lord, this is too difficult, this is inconveniencing for me.”
Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say,
“This is the way you should go,” whether to the right or to the left.
Then you will destroy all your silver idols and your precious gold images. You will throw them out like filthy rags, saying to them, “Good riddance!”
Isaiah 30:21-22
God gives everyone an instruction. You may hear Him. But are you listening? The evidence of you listening and believing that it is God who is speaking to you, is your obedience. God said that the people in Isaiah 30 who heard God and listened would act on this and throw away their idols. God will lead you if you let Him, and if you listen, you will be on His right path. He will also let you know, in one way or another, if you are going down the wrong path!
One person who was deeply inconvenienced was Jonah. I don’t think there was anyone as severely inconvenienced as him lol. I can only imagine his face when God told him to go to Nineveh. You know those times when God tells you to do something really deep, and really scary?! Jonah felt so troubled that he was wiling to run from God even though as a prophet I’m sure he knew the word in Psalm 139:7 that says ‘where can I flee from Your presence?’.
The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.”
But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.
Jonah 1:1-3 NLT
So Jonah went. But he went in the opposite direction. Remember Isaiah 30:21-22? It says that God will tell you to go left or right. Jonah went in the opposite direction of where God had him go and we all know what happens next.
God in His mercy saved Jonah from death, and gave him another chance to get it right:
Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”
This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.
Jonah 3:1-3 NLT
Jonah who was interrupted, finally yielded to the plans of God, and actually saved an entire generation from destruction.
Isn’t that amazing? Following the Lord’s instructions is so much more about you. There are generations tied to your calling, assignment, or your ministry, and to you following the leading of the Holy Spirit.
At the end of the day, if we want to be vessels for honorable use, we have to be used. The Lord shows compassion on whom He chooses, and He chooses you to do the work, and in His mercy never lets you go alone.
We should all long for the days when inconveniences to our day turns into conveniences. When we realize that the King of Kings is interrupting us for His glory. I pray that these wouldn’t even look like interruptions. That we would be walking by the Spirit in every way that this is the way we live. I pray that we would want to be used by God anywhere, for anyone!
joy-full 