One Way to Experience God’s Plan

I greeted her with a smile and tried to make her feel comfortable. I didn’t know much about her, so I asked questions to try and ease the newness of it all. We grabbed some goodies then shuffled into the living room, where my Bible study group gathered in our usual circle.

We shared and prayed and pondered God’s will for our lives. And before long the new girl at Bible study unloaded her burdened heart. The headache in her heart made her wince as the words poured out of her mouth. Floods of self-doubt and confusion gushed through the gaping hole in her soul.

She described the uncertainty of new things, the unsettled places of old things and the unraveling of too many things. And when the words ran out and the tears neared too close to spilling over, she lowered her head and pleaded, “I just need to know what to do.”

And we all sat silent.

Who am I to say something? I reasoned. The leader of the group will shed light on her situation. Or the person she came with will offer a better solution. But certainly I am not the one with the answer. All the while God tied the strings of my heart to hers, and I desperately wanted to say something.

Everyone else must have thought the same way I did, because none of us offered her anything to help keep her head above water. We counted the credentials of the girls to the left and to the right of us and determined someone else’s position made them more suited to speak. Then we sealed our lips shut, forgetting that God calls the unlikely to do the unthinkable.

The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!’” Judges 6:12

Let’s pump the breaks right here. The “mighty hero” God refers to in this verse is Gideon. God found Gideon at a time so bad in Israel’s history that even when processing wheat you had to be quiet about it, so the Midianites wouldn’t find you and steal it. And that’s just what Gideon was doing – hiding out from the enemy while he tried to provide food for his family.

And what did Gideon do when He heard God’s call? Fall on his face in reverence? Cry out to God for help? Rejoice? No, when the angel of the Lord called Gideon a “mighty warrior”, Gideon came back with a tidal wave of questions about God’s presence.

If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” Judges 6:13

Gideon goes on to point out his clan is the weakest in all of Israel and that he is the “runt of the litter.” No power. No platform. No position. Yet this is the man God commissioned to rescue Israel.

The Lord said to him, ‘I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.’” Judges 6:16

Like Gideon, I questioned. Like Gideon, I made excuses. Like Gideon, I felt powerless. But Gideon did one thing very different than me. Gideon believed his position wassn’t nearly as important as God’s promise. And Gideon put God’s promise to the test.

Gideon replied, ‘If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.’” Judges 6:17-18

Gideon still wondered, Is this really God? But in the midst of his doubt he dared to act.

He didn’t pull up a rug, cross his leg and say, “Explain to me your strategy, please. I’m just trying to figure out how I fit here.” Instead, he brought God what he had.

God made good on His promise and turned a guy with no earthly status into a warrior, a hero, a champion. Gideon marched into battle with 300 men and defeated a massive army.

I wish my story ended as well. That day at Bible study I let my position pinch the Spirit that pressed my heart to speak.

She never returned to our group. She likely left confused and embarrassed. I pray God used someone else to draw her to Him. I wish it had been me. In her book, You’re Made for a God-Sized Dream, Holley Gerth writes,

If we make the wrong decision, there is grace and God is able to redirect as well as redeem. What’s more dangerous is doing nothing at all.”

If you are the new girl who tested the Bible study to find the same results as my friend, may I offer this apology from us all. I’m sorry we let you down. I wish we all made the right decisions at the right time. I pray next time we’re more brave than we were the first time. And in spite of our failure, I pray you feel the loving arms of Jesus wrapped around you.

If you’re the the friend at the Bible study wanting to leap but afraid of what might happen next, may I ask you a question …

Right now, what do you have to offer God? I’m not asking you to rummage around and come up with an offering like that other person with all the status. Neither is God. He’s asking for your best from the place where you sit right now. Will you let God decide what you can do?

Do you want to know more about the gifts God has given you? Join me at a She Laughs women’s conference to discover how your identity in Christ can inspire your activity for His glory!