What am I trying to say? God is not looking for the most talented, beautiful, intelligent, wealthiest, athletic, spiritual, whitest, blackest, reddest, brownest, largest, smallest, thinnest, thickest or politically correct individual, he is looking for people that will say “Yes”. In Esther’s case making the right choice took a little coaxing from her uncle (Mordecai) but she had the advantage of having had a relationship with God prior to this experience. Gideon, however, lived well before Esther in a time when God was silent much of the time because of the great sins of the Israelites. I am not justifying his lack of faith. I want to be clear that Gideon didn’t have to get himself together before entering a relationship with God all he needed was a surrendered (willing) heart. God met Gideon where he was and built him up from that platform. Can you see the plain liberty in that statement? Do you understand how incredibly simplistic it is? No, I don’t think you do, seriously. First of all you really cannot fix you. Granted you can make some external changes (e.g. exercise, diet, wardrobe/hair makeover, etc.) all of which are great. You can even make some behavioral changes that may last for quite a while, but we cannot change the spiritual man, we need God for that. Simply put, all we need to do is show up with the right attitude and God will take care of the rest, with regards to conversion. After that point it is left up to us to cultivate our relationship with him and discover his will for our lives based on his purpose for us, not someone else.
I cannot insinuate that I know the mind of God, however, I had an epiphany yesterday and felt that it would be a great analogy to offer as a way of better understanding how God groomed Gideon for his “purpose”. Baking is a favorite past-time of mines and I can confidently say I’m pretty good at it, so I’ll use that as an analogy:
- First I have to make the decision (choice) that I want to participate (bake)
- Secondly I must decide what type of cake I want
to bake, for example 7-Up, Lemon Jello, Sock-it-to-Me, Sour Cream Pound, Carrot
Cake, German Chocolate or German Chocolate cupcakes. Let’s go with German Chocolate cupcakes
- I must go through the process of:
o
Acquiring the ingredients;
o
Combining the ingredients – which demands exact
measurements and can take a while;
o
Filling each cupcake with the right amount of
batter
o
Baking the cupcakes – the refining process;
o
Applying the icing; and
o
Lastly, the reward of eating those
delicious little cakes.
The spiritual analogy:
- Once we make the choice to obey God,
- We must seek (ask) God for direction for our lives, what is your passion(s) -- the desire(s) that you have really comes from God so it’s no surprise to him, it’s all a part of his plan
- We must go through the process of acquiring the ingredients (desire, obedience, courage, prayer, fasting, reading/studying the word, etc.) to start the journey;
- We combine the ingredients throughout the journey to make us stronger and wiser;
- We begin the refining process (the trial of our faith which can get so heated sometimes that we think we’re going to disintegrate – give up – but God knows exactly how long we need to be refined, he will never allow us to be burned);
- When we’re good and ready God will remove us from the situation; and
- Reward us by lavishing us with the final touches of his rewards and secret promises that only he knows about which will allow us to shine like a light that sits on a hill as we walk in completeness in him.
In conclusion, Gideon may have started out with cowardice
tendencies but his willingness and obedience got God’s attention and he was
ultimately labeled one of the heroes of faith in the bible. Hebrews
11:32 (NLT): How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount
the stories of the faith of Gideon,
Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. Someone said it’s not how you start that
counts, it is how you finish.
In His Excellent Service
Tania
No comments:
Post a Comment