Ruth Bell Graham: Expect the Unexpected

So it is with me often: unexpected danger,
an impossible situation, will be used by God
to make things happen.

The handful of believers commissioned by Jesus
to go into all the world and preach the Gospel
met daily in the temple—whose very leaders had urged the Romans to crucify their Lord—
worshipping and praising God. Then came the stunning fact that Stephen, one of their leaders,
had been stoned to death. Persecution had begun.
And with it, the beginning of the fulfillment
of the Great Commission. The persecutor, himself arrested by God, became Paul the persecuted,
leading the way in carrying the Gospel to
the stronghold of Caesar himself.

So by unexpected means God frequently
makes possible the impossible—motivating
the unmotivated.

 

Taken by permission and adapted from “Legacy of a Pack Rat,” by Ruth Bell Graham. ©1989 The Ruth Bell Graham Literary Trust.