Read Acts 8:26–28, 30–31, 35

Can there be anything more exasperating than calling a customer service number and getting an electronic answer? You know how it goes:

Press one for English. Press two for technical support. Press three for directions and hours of operation. Press four for a callback. Press five to return to the main menu.

It ought to add: press six if you give up!

Why isn’t anyone available?!

If we feel such intense frustration with the lack of availability of someone “live” who can help, imagine what people who don’t know God must feel when attempting to get the attention of people like us who know Him personally.

Yet God desires that we make ourselves available to others in their times of need.

As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, “Go south down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. . . . Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah...and [the Eunuch] urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.... So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus. (Acts 8:26–28, 30–31, 35)

You know why I love that story? Because Philip was available. As a result, a total stranger came to know the Lord! What does your day or week look like? Is all the white space on your calendar filled up with all you have planned to accomplish? Have you allowed some margin of availability in case the opportunity arises for you to share your faith? Listen to the Spirit’s leading. If you sense you’re too “booked up,” then you probably are. Re-evaluate. Be available. Someone may really need you, and they can tell if you’re available.

Devotional content taken from Good Morning, Lord...Can We Talk? by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2018. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.

The full devotional can be purchased at https://www.tyndale.com/p/good-morning-lord-can-we-talk/9781414380681.