Prepared Placement
Scripture Reading: Matthew 20:20–23
“Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, “Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.”
Prepared Placement
Lord, we glorify your holy name and thank you for being a Father who prepares a place for His children. God prepares our position in life, yet many times we lobby for something else, like the mother of Zebedee’s children who asked that her sons sit on the right hand and left hand of Jesus.
Every position, everything you are looking for, and everything you are meant to receive is prepared for you. If something is not yours and you are asking for it, you are essentially trespassing. That is why you need to pray the Lord’s Prayer: “O Lord, forgive me my trespasses.” When you lobby for positions that are not your own, when you push yourself into ministries to which God did not send you, you are in fact trespassing. There is a difference between what has been prepared for you and what you are forcing yourself into. We sometimes waste our time with assignments that were not given, designed, or prepared for us. When doors do not open, we recognize that things are tough but think we are suffering for Christ. When someone has been prepared for a position, every fiber in their being has been prepared to function in that office. No one can do this work like they can because the work was divinely prepared for them.
Beloved, stop coveting roles that are not yours; stop comparing yourself and your role to your neighbor, because there are different preparations required for different positions. In your prepared place, the realm of the extraordinary, the realm of the miraculous is available. Goodness and mercy will follow you there, and living waters will flow over your soul there. God prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies in His prepared place for you.
The mother of those ambitious sons lobbied for high posts in the Kingdom, but the Lord used her to deliver the revelation that there are certain places prepared for certain people. Let your ambition for other people’s positions come to an end.
Let your emulation and comparison come to an end. Focus now on the place God has prepared for you because it is the place of your blessing. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end,” Jeremiah 29:11. That expected end is a good end because God Himself prepared it for you.
Some of you probably need to change positions because you know where you are sitting belongs to someone else. Some of you have to leave those popular high profile assignments and activities alone because you have taken someone else’s role. Your own stage is set and empty, waiting for you. No one else can inhabit that role, no lobbying can take your position, and no opposition can succeed against you, because that place has been prepared for you.
Wouldn’t it be lovely if we all worked in the realm that God has prepared for us? Deliver yourself from inordinate ambitions that are not your own, from foolish lobbying, from the places that God has not prepared for you. Being in the wrong place leads to diversion and diversion leads to destruction. Being in the right place leads to righteousness, focus, promotions, blessings, and eternal life.
Prayer Points:
I stand in awe of you Lord. I thank you because your thoughts for us are of peace and not of evil. Bless me with peace in the knowledge that you have prepared a place for me at every stage. Let me not miss where you have prepared for me because of where I desire to be. Lead me to that place where all grace will abound to me.
I read in this passage that you prepare places and positions for people, and because you do that, I pray that you divinely locate me to the family, to the ministry, to the work, to the school you have prepared for me. I also pray for our children, Lord, that you will send them to the schools that you have prepared for them so that when they arrive they will recognize it in their spirit and all grace will abound unto them.
Father, deliver me, from my ambitious distractions that divert, from inordinate ambitions, from everything that troubles me, in Jesus’ name I pray. This direction is possible when you are born again so if you are not born again, pray now and say, “Lord, forgive me my sins and accept me as your child. I surrender my life to you and ask that you lead me Lord to the places you have prepared for me. Let me not miss any one of them in Jesus’ name.”
