A few days ago, one of my daughter’s friend’s mom came up to me to share that she had been reading my book and how much it’s helping her. I smiled, hugged her and thanked her for sharing with me.
The thing is, I had given her the book relatively early in the pandemic as we had been spending a fair amount of time together – and to be honest, had forgotten about it until she mentioned it.
As I read a devotion that centered on the life of Gideon when God called him to go save his people, he asked how. In his mind and based on hierarchy, his clan was the weakest and he was the least in his family. In other words, he was no one of importance.
The Lord promised to be with him.
And Gideon, being Gideon, asked for a series of tests to prove that this was indeed true.
God answered each time.
To be honest, this is exactly how I was. I wouldn’t consider myself shy, but I’m reserved and very private.
I became convinced that I should be writing, but it made no sense as I wasn’t a writer and I had all these issues with my writing, so I kept asking God to show me that this was indeed the thing I should be doing.
After I had presented all my excuses, God answered each one of them and I was left without excuses with one job: start writing.
I did. Out of sheer obedience and not knowing what would happen.
Fast forward to over seven years and hundreds of blog posts, 3 published books and a change in the trajectory of my career. I look back and see that my timid boldness and courage has opened doors for me in a way that I could not have imagined – and I see God’s hands all over it. But, I had to take the first step, no matter how fearful I was in the beginning and every subsequent beginning after that.
What is God asking you to do? It might not even make sense based on your skill set. I encourage you to take those first steps and let God guide and direct you. I won’t promise you that it will be easy, but I will promise you that it will be worth it!
Dear Heavenly Father, this morning I sit in gratitude for the work that you are and have done in my life. The journey has not been easy, but just as you have promised, you have been with me every step of the way.