Trusted
Picking the road to use for my commute is usually the first thing I think about after buckling the seat belt. There’s the straight road through a small but busy town, the winding back road that has almost no traffic, and a multitude of side roads to vary the routine. The catch is that I’ve timed each route and, well, they all take the same amount of time unless one road is especially busy. It doesn’t matter which road I take, because they all go to the same place with the same speed.
It reminds me of the story of Gideon, a judge of Israel. After an angel appeared to him and foretold the victory God had in mind, Gideon asked for a sign. First he laid out a fleece and asked for the fleece to have dew on it in the morning, but for the ground around it to be dry. The next morning, the fleece was wet and the ground was dry. Then Gideon asked for the situation to be reversed. Again God answered: the fleece was dry and the ground was wet with dew. He didn’t ask for another sign.
Perhaps Gideon doesn’t seem to be a great man of faith just yet. After all, it took an angel and two miracles for him to believe. He is not the picture of confidence and valor that people look for in a leader. But God had chosen him, and now God showed his own confidence: “Gideon! Your army is too big! If you win a battle with this army, Israel won’t accept that it was My doing. Tell all the fearful men to go home.” The army of 32,000 shrank to 10,000 after that announcement. God spoke again: “Your army is still too big — go to the water and have the men drink. Let only the watchful men stay.” Gideon was left with 300 men.
If you’ve heard this story before, you probably think I’m going to say that God told Gideon to equip the men with trumpets and pitchers and lamps and go out to battle with that odd assortment of weapons. But there’s a problem: God didn’t tell Gideon what to do after that, other than to go fight the Midianites. Gideon was in serious need of direction.
So who came up with the battle plan? Who decided that trumpets and lamps were the weapons of a victorious army? Apparently Gideon did. After setting him on the right path, God left the method of victory up to Gideon. He made a choice . . . and God stepped in to back him up. It was Gideon’s plan, but God’s victory.
I’ve often wondered if I would have the guts to make a choice like that. It seems like there are so many ways to make a wrong choice. But the story of Gideon helps me realize that if God has trusted me with a choice and my heart is in the right place, I will always make the right choice because He will back it up.
This is no doubt a key component to true faith. Trust and guts!
Obviously we can only go forth boldly if we continue to keep our personal times of prayer vibrant and honest. It is in those times that God sifts motives, disciplines and encourages. It is because we have that personal time with Him that we can believe in the decisions we make. In other words, our decisions are on the firm foundation of a committed relationship with Christ, that is our protection against failure. We might stumble, but we won’t fail — because he has our back covered.
Even the writing of this blog has been a decision, and you can be sure that it will bear fruit because it was born out a relationship with God.
Keep up the great work!
Awesome perspective Philip! I think sometimes God has more faith in us then we do in ourselves.