How do you respond when you get interrupted? Do you stop and give your full attention to the individual or do you sit there frustrated hoping the person will come to their point?
I was at a prayer service and a gentleman asked the Lord to help us become people who could be interrupted. I had to ask the Father about that idea. Did He desire for us to become people who could be interrupted? His response was simple, “Look at Jesus.”
If we want to be children of God who bring great pleasure to our Daddy we need to be willing to do what Jesus did. In Luke 8:40-48 we read the story of the woman with the blood issue who reached out and touched Jesus in a crowd. Verse 42 tells us Jesus was on His way somewhere, making His way through a crowd, when His plans were interrupted by this woman touching Him. How did He respond? Did He just keep going like He didn’t notice? Did He turn around with a scowl on His face and say “What now?” Not a chance. Jesus turned to her and called her daughter. He declared her faith healed her from her illness.
He then turned to yet another interruption. Not only did this interruption stop him from continuing on His journey, it totally changed His course. He left with Jairus and went to his house to raise his daughter from the dead [Luke 8:41-59].
Finally, in Matthew 19:13-15 Jesus is teaching and people begin to bring their children to Him. Who wouldn’t want to bring their children to Jesus? The disciples were put out by this. It says in verse 13 the disciples rebuked those who brought their children to Him. The Messages says “the disciples shooed them off.” They quite possibly responded to the interruption the way we would. I know I’m guilty of being put out by an interruption at times. Thankfully, Jesus is not. The Message goes on to say “But Jesus intervened.” He welcomed the children. In fact, He went so far as to rebuke the disciples saying “Don’t prevent them from coming to me.”
In the Gospels we see Jesus going out very early in the morning to pray [Mark 1:35]. I can’t help but assume He surrendered His day to the Father’s agenda. He stated as much in John 5:19. If we are to be like Jesus, we need to commit our day to the Father also. In doing do, we need to understand what we view as an interruption might be a very well planned out divine appointment.
The next time an interruption comes your way, ask the Holy Spirit to let you know if this is sent to you by the Father. Ask if you should stop and attend to it. You may find what you’re doing is not nearly as important as what you are about to do.