Our church will be celebrating our graduates at the end of this month. As high school and college graduates look to the end of their current school “careers” and decide what to do next, it is a perfect time for all of us to consider our next steps in life. What direction is God pointing us? What brave new thing does He want us to do with His help? What things has He been putting on our hearts?
Sometimes we get an idea in our heads and dismiss it quickly thinking we would never be good at that. It seems too difficult or way out of our comfort zone. If you look at the stories of Moses in Exodus 3 and Gideon in Judges 6, you see two people (out of the many misfits God has used throughout history) who thought they could never do what God was asking them to do. But what they both realized later was that God was not asking them to do it alone. He knew what they were capable of more than they knew themselves. He was asking them to move and rely wholly on Him.
As Steve said in his sermon this last Sunday, “God selects what the world rejects.” Those two men in particular were not the leaders humans would have chosen. Moses was a murderer and on the run. Gideon was, in his own words, from the weakest clan in Manasseh, and “the least in [his] family.” Both immediately questioned God’s plan, but, at God’s insistence, both followed through with God’s help. Any new challenge can only be accomplished through the strength God gives us.
Moses and Gideon could have easily talked themselves out of following God’s plan for their lives, and they tried at first. But Moses had seen the burning bush, and Gideon put out his fleece, multiple times. Ultimately, they could not deny the power of the great I AM. We have to remember these examples and talk ourselves INTO the plans God has for us. We have no excuses because He will use our weaknesses to show His glory.
Don’t continue to only do things you already know how to do, or continue living life on autopilot. Look for God’s miraculous hand and do something entirely new. Let us graduate from our simple lives and live lives completely reliant on God. When we are out of our comfort zones, then God can move in mighty ways.