A small step…can make a tremendous difference, especially if courage and the unknown are involved. I call it a step of faith…stepping without seeing…..! Hebrews 11:1 describes faith this way. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Do you ever feel that God has told you to do something and you dismissed it?
Questioned it for too long?
Or just simply refused to take the step?
Do we realize…the sin of omission (neglect) can keep us from God’s best?!
I can say in my own life….there have been times God specifically told me to do something and I hid behind the excuse that I needed to pray about it for a little longer. I actually thought God wouldn’t know the depths of my mind and heart. How ignorant was my thinking?!
Thankfully, I have grown tremendously. Through the consequences of “reaping what you sow,” I have learned the hard way…the difficult way…the painful way…..TO ACT…WHEN GOD SPEAKS! Pain has been a motivator for me and at 52 I find it is a powerful motivator for most people. Because of my past learning curve, when God told me to not only write a book, but to write daily and post, and start speaking again….I didn’t hesitate…even though I can tell you that, for me, “writing” was that small step…..of faith…and obedience. I stepped out without any training or prior education in this area. It would have been easy to make excuses but I knew better.
I was a business major in college and for the last twenty years a wife, mother, cook, chauffeur, caddie, spectator and the list goes on and on; but writer was not on the list. Two full years later, as I reflect over the year of 2014, I have thought, “What if…..I was the old me still praying about it?” Seriously, this year, even with the death of my mother (horrific, sad and heartbreaking), I can’t imagine having missed out on the blessings I have received from the simple steps of courage and obedience to God by just simply starting to write and making sure I didn’t NEGLECT.
Point of post–take a simple step of obedience to God….
even when it doesn’t make sense…
and you don’t feel qualified…
even if you can’t see the road ahead…
I am convinced the only thing between you and God’s best is small steps of obedience and courage. Yes, even when you don’t have all the answers. It can be as simple as asking a question, sending an email or downloading an application.
For me, it was seeing a friend on the same day God said to write and asking them the question, “Can you tell me who you went to for help when you wrote a book?” From that simple question, she gave me a phone number. Then I had to press send on my phone and leave a voicemail. Those two small steps led to a little bit bigger step of driving to Charlotte to have lunch.
Are you seeing? Small step, small step, a little bigger step…….and all of a sudden, within FOUR months of the initial step, I had written 80,000 words! Now, if you know me, you know I can talk that much, but writing is a very different story. LOL!! I marvel because my small intentional steps of a faith led me down a road of some pretty fantastic things. Every one of them orchestrated by a HOLY God. I know that I know that it wasn’t Sherry. I know me well. Courage and the unknown have caused me to see God in a way I just never have before in my life.
I so want to encourage you to seek God’s best for you in 2015 and it can start in December of 2014.
In the book of Esther she took a courageous step to go before the king when she had not been summoned by him. Something that you just did not do in those days. She said, “If I perish, I perish.” There are many examples in Scripture where a “small step of courage” took people to God’s best for their lives! People who decided they were “all in” even if they didn’t see the end!
At 52, I can honestly say, and have lived, there is little reward without risk. The “biggest and best rewards” come from listening to and NOT NEGLECTING to take the step, or steps, God is leading you to take. His rewards are the best, especially when you risk for HIM. Get your Bible and a journal. Find a quiet place in your house or apartment and start asking God….What is my simple step? and then TAKE IT!
Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”