Gideon's heart...

Philippians 1:6

Being confident in this very thing, 

that He who has begun a good work in you 

will complete it 

until the day of Jesus Christ”

I am thinking that if I were a man, I would want my name to be Gideon... 

I can totally relate to that place of "Lord, if it's really you..."  That thought can happen at any moment of any day. 

I awaken with a dream that seems far too big for anything that I could accomplish and wonder how God will do that through me.  I catch a vision during the day that takes my breath away and feel the promise of God’s heart on it for me. In that same breath I feel my own inner voices struggle to receive the promise.  “Who am I that the Love of God would lavish me with something so kind?”  God says, “Go there!” and my first thought is “Wow....where will the provision come from?”  

We all have our Gideon Moments.  God’s plan for him was so big....God’s picture of us is always bigger than our own.  Can you imagine yourself in that moment with Gideon on that threshing floor?  

But remember, most of the hero’s of the bible thought smaller than God did. They all had to lean into the promise and take that step of faith to believe in something greater than themselves.  They all had to believe in a love that saw them from a different perspective than their own.  They had to face those same voices we all face.  Those voices that come from within, and from those around that say, “it couldn’t be done”... “you are too small”...  “you are not enough”.... “you have too much baggage”...  “you have made too many mistakes”... “Your God doesn’t exist anymore”...  

Doubt will always try to be louder than faith.... but doubt will just never have the same incredible endurance that love has.  Love and hope will always outlast doubt and fear.  God’s love and His vision of us has been here from the beginning and it will always make a way for us to see who we are and help us do what He has called us to do.  His patience with us is without compare and His kindness to encourage and confirm it to us time and time again is without limit.  He has been around for all eternity and has truly seen it all from beginning to end.  There are no surprises that will shock Him or cause Him to shift course from what His love has planned for us.  

Watch what God’s love did for our friend Gideon.  God doesn’t see like we do.  He doesn’t give a promise and not have a plan for its completion.  God will not tease us with a dream.  That is not His love.  

Like Gideon, I know that My God will always answer. He will always send His love in a promise, a word of encouragement, sometimes a whisper that I have to lean into His heart to hear... but He will also way speak if I will listen.  Gideon saw a threshing floor where he could hide... God saw a mighty man who could lead an army.  Gideon saw an army that was so small... God saw what His enemies falling under their feet.  Gideon needed to be encouraged and God was ready to do just that. Gideon only had 300.  God wanted that way so that all would know it was Him. He wanted to erase the doubt in Gideon’s heart and raise him up in a way that only God can. 

There is no other God Like my God. None.... And there is nothing that is impossible for His love to bring to completion.   

My God can take what seems hopeless and WAY too small to be considered viable to the "wise and learned" and do something totally amazing and beyond any wisdom that the world can understand.

It may take time.  It may require of us the courage and willingness to lean in and believe in a new way. 

Where are those places, those dreams, those promises for your heart.  Lean in and listen to the promise.  Let your heart take hold and do what seems impossible.  

Dream big.  Our dreams or God’s reality for us.  Help us to see like you see God!  Help us to see the big dream that Your Love dreams for us.  

“With the vision

And make it plan on tablets

That he may run who reads it.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time; 

But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

Though it tarries, wait for it;

Because it will surely come, 

it will not tarry”

Habakkuk 2: 2-3

My friend Jonathon Helser has a song that is so perfect.  Have a listen and be encouraged.