The Right Person in the Right Place at the Right time

I have been pondering about a revelation I received last November when Paul and I went to a series of courses called ‘Talking Jesus’. The gifted evangelist, who was speaking, assured every one of us that we were the right person, in the right place, at the right time for God to use us as His witnesses. Afterwards our pastor told us he thought we were in the right place, as we lived three doors down from a couple whom he had just led to the Lord.

It is not always easy to feel confident that one is in the right place, especially at times of upheaval and change. I conclude that we have to do our best to keep going and trusting that the Lord will open the right doors and shut the wrong ones.

Philip was in the right place on the desert road to Gaza. He had heard the ‘angel of the Lord’ telling him to go there and had obeyed. It has not always exactly been like that for me, hearing such a clear instruction about where to go, but in hindsight I have thought I must have been directed by the Lord after all.

There were people whom I met at certain points of my life and as a result my whole life changed. I can think of others whom the Lord wanted me to meet for purposes of His own. At times I have wondered whether I was in the right place, as things were not going so well at the time, but, as I look back, I can see why the Lord wanted me there, if only for a season.

In 1982 our family went to live in Tokyo, and I asked the Lord to lead us to the right church. Eventually we did feel it was not the right church for us and we moved to a different one, but not before meeting a certain person. Robyn did not go to church but would take her little boy to a toddler group there in the upstairs room.

One day she had felt so depressed she decided to speak to the minister and knocked on his office door. He was not there. Her eyes fell on a paperback book in the bookcase and she started to read it. (Paul and I had donated some Christian testimony books and this one still had my name written in the front.) She was astonished to discover that the writer was describing her life and so she borrowed the book to take home.

At the end of the book she prayed the suggested prayer to give her life to Jesus and then she turned up at a quiet little mid-week communion service in the church with just a few people. As we were going out, I said hello to her and told her my name. How excited she was as she explained she had been longing to meet me!

I introduced Robyn to all my Christian friends and one night we invited her and her husband to a little dinner party. We had then just moved to a wonderful, exciting, new international fellowship and, as they were leaving, Paul casually invited Robyn’s husband Robert to come. He agreed and it was the start of a new life for them and their family. While we were on our summer holidays back in England, the family all got water baptised and then the Australian embassy transferred them to China, so we did not see them again.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, I thank You that You can use me for Your Kingdom purposes and, even though I can’t always understand what You are doing, I want to trust that You will lead me and guide me. May Your will be done, and Your Kingdom come in my life. Help me to be close enough to You to hear Your voice directing me and guiding me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.