"God's Plans the Best Our plans are not always God's plans. He may see that it is best for us and for His cause to refuse our very best intentions, as He did in the case of David. But of one thing we may be assured, He will bless and use in the advancement of His cause those who sincerely devote themselves and all they have to His glory. If He sees it best not to grant their desires He will counterbalance the refusal by giving them tokens of His love and entrusting to them another service. MH 473"
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
The EGW passage reflects the principle that God's plans are different and often better than our own, which is the central theme of Isaiah 55:8-9.
"If the Lord desires us to bear a message to Nineveh, it will not be as pleasing to Him for us to go to Joppa or to Capernaum. He has reasons for sending us to the place toward which our feet have been directed. At that very place there may be someone in need of the help we can give. He who sent Philip to the Ethiopian councilor, Peter to the Roman centurion, and the little Israelitish maiden to the help of Naaman, the Syrian captain, sends men and women and youth today as His representatives to those in need of divine help and guidance. MH 473.1"
"And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert."
EGW explicitly alludes to the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch from Acts 8, using it as an example of God directing individuals to specific places to fulfill His purpose. The passage directly references the biblical narrative.
"There was a certain man in Cesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,"
The EGW passage explicitly mentions Peter's mission to Cornelius, the Roman centurion, as described in Acts 10.
"And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife."
The EGW passage explicitly mentions the little Israelitish maiden's help to Naaman, the Syrian captain, as described in 2 Kings 5.