Divine Appointments

I believe in divine appointments. I believe that God places people right where He wants them, in a moment of time, to connect and glorify Him. I believe that there are no coincidences in life. Everything happens for a reason, and everything happens because of Him.
That being said. I was praying this morning and thanking God for everything that He has done in my life. I was thinking of all of the people that I know. Friends of old and new ones too. And how all of these people have made an impact in my life. There has been friends for different stages (or seasons, if you will) of my life. Of course there are the ones from my childhood and high school days. After them, my military brothers and sisters. Then there was the friends that I made after the military, from work or college. Friends from our first and second neighborhoods (I would say third neighborhood, but we don't really have any here). And then there is our church. Our community of fellow "Jesus Freaks". These are the ones I love the most.
This is where the divine appointment comes in. I was trying to think of the reasons that I am close to the people who are currently active in my life. As I was doing this, I was amazed at what I discovered. God showed me all of the work that He has done and is doing in my life through my friendships. Not only do these people share the same God and common beliefs, but they speak into my life, they call me out, they hold me accountable, and they love me unconditionally. They were divinely appointed to be my friends.
This doesn't count out friends from my past. There was lots of growth and contribution from them as well. I learned about Christianity and observed how people worshipped God from past friendships. As I examined the reasons that I was privileged to know them, I saw how they were divinely appointed as well.
Every person that I have made contact with in my life has brought me closer to God, even the ones that don't believe in Him. I have to believe that God divinely appointed me to be an advocate for Him to the non-believers. To plant a seed that will, hopefully, fruitfully grow someday. That's a hard one because it is sometimes difficult to spend time with someone who has completely opposite beliefs than I do. I tend to judge and pity people who don't know Jesus, and that leads to my "preaching". Non-believers don't like being preached to, and actually, neither do I. So I have to remember to just do what Jesus would do, and that is love everyone unconditionally.
Who has God divinely appointed to be in your life? Have you ever examined your friendships, past and present? I would argue that everyone you know glorifies God in some way.