throwing out the fleece

Today's Life Journal reading includes Judges 6-7, the story of Gideon's defeat of the Midianites.  We love this story!!  God speaks to Gideon, tells him to do the impossible.  Gideon has the audacity to make three different requests of God, so that he can really, really know that God will do what He has said He will do.  Then God leads Gideon as the ultimate underdog into a battle for which the victory is undeniably the LORD's.

My morning prayer time usually springboards from what I have read in the bible, and so it did today.  Lord, what is the impossible thing  you want me to do?  Lord, what am I attempting in life that is so big that only You could get the glory?  Lord, speak to me about how you want me to life my life in a radically faithful way so that You will be seen for who You are!

Then came the quiet voice of conviction, guiding my prayers and my thoughts.  I want your heart.  Throughout the history of Israel God seems delighted to do what only He can do.  He gladly glorifies Himself through impossible odds.  But what He desires is love, worship, and obedience from His people.  So today, instead of "throwing out a fleece" for confirmation from God about the next big thing He wants to do through me, I am asking Him to remind me of the things He has already spoken to me through His Word.  Here are a few:

• He wants the first-fruits of my time.  He wants me to seek Him in the morning and He wants me to give Him enough time so that I can be still and listen.  He wants me to write His Word on my heart.

• He wants me to trust Him enough to allow me to give sacrificially.  He wants a tithe and more.  He wants me to be like the widow giving a mite.  He wants to be my Provider.

• He wants me to be different from the world around me.  He wants me to love the unloveable, to set my mind and heart on what is good and true, to obey Him no matter what the cost.  He wants His light to shine through my good deeds.

• He wants me to be a witness to the world around me.  He wants me to fearlessly proclaim the Truth of the Gospel and the freedom that Jesus offers.
  

Today, I am throwing out the fleece, the idea that I need God to speak to me in a unique way so that I can do some great, big thing for Him.  Today I am going to obey Him in the things He has already clearly spoken.