I am going to keep this as collected as I can, but my mind is running at a thousand miles per second. I said to God this morning, “Why can’t we have a clear path to serve you? Why does all this life drama have to happen and keep us from doing the service we want?”

God’s response to those questions flooded my mind so quickly I realized it was a lesson He’s been waiting to teach me.

God’s response came in two parts. The first part went straight to the enemy, the devil and how the part he can play in our life when we allow him to. God’s response to me was, The enemy doesn’t want you to serve ME. Why is it so perplexing that the path to serving Me is filled with so many obstacles. 

That was the first part of the lesson and I realize that is clearly explained in Ephesians 6:10-20 where we are told to put on the ARMOR OF GOD. The only way to not even see those obstacles and overcome them is wearing the Armor of God every day. Being aware that we are at war and it is a war with an end allows us to be confident of victory, but that doesn’t allow us to lower our guard during our life on Earth.

On Earth, during our lives we are given a determined amount of time to serve God. Part two of this lesson is knowing our time is limited, but we can make the most of it by obeying the leading of the Holy Spirit. The Bible mentions time and our use of it enough that we cannot deny how precious it is. I’ve read more than once that Do Not Fear is written in the Bible 365 times and that is one for every day of the year and on the Leap Year we can use the one of those twice 🙂

I brought up Do Not Fear because most of the times the Holy Spirit leads me to serve, it is a situation, person or issue I don’t want to deal with. I am not ashamed to admit that almost every time the Holy Spirit has led me to serve, fear or anxiety have jumped down my throat and paralyzed me long enough to either delay the opportunity or completely miss it. Some of those delays have resulted in second chances for me and I am grateful, but the times I missed my opportunity by rationalizing myself out of it I’ve begged God for forgiveness far too long before realizing I had to forgive myself.

If I am honest, the enemy has put plenty of obstacles in my way, but that is rarely what stops me. I stop me. I allow fear, anxiety, the thought of doing something uncomfortable or out of my comfort zone to lose an opportunity. I allow myself to rationalize why I shouldn’t do what the Holy Spirit is obviously leading me to do. I say obviously because anytime the Holy Spirit calls on me it is uncomfortable. There have been few times when the Holy Spirit led me to do something that my response was, “YEAH, LET’S DO THIS!” I pray for that day, when my response is just that, but I’m not there yet. 🙂

Why does the Holy Spirit call me to do the uncomfortable? I don’t think I’ve ever had to ask that question and not because I’m an arrogant know it all, but because it has always been clear to me through God’s wisdom and the Bible, that this is what allows us to GROW in God. Need some examples, well I have plenty, but my favorite two are well known, at least I think so. Moses and Gideon. I love those two examples so much because they said what I did (I’m going to paraphrase before giving the scriptures), For Moses, it was more likely, “Hey Lord, don’t you want someone like Abraham? Jacob? I’m just Moses.” Gideon went as far as reminding God how poor a house of Israel he came from. For me it’s like this, “Me? Really, Lord? I’m Belinda no name, there has to be someone else. You’ve got Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer, Matt Maher and Chris Tomlin. Not telling you your job, but are you sure?”

Exodus 4:1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. Verses 2-9 are the Lord telling Moses to perform certain acts so the people would believe him.  Moses responds to God’s assurances in Exodus 4:10 And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. **Sounds to me like, Lord, I’m not the right person for the job.**

Judges 6:14 And the Lord looked upon him. and said, Go in this thy might,  and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have I not sent thee? Gideon responds in verse 15. And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. Gideon had God’s assurances that he was chosen to do this for Israel, but Gideon still wasn’t sure.

I can tell you that Moses and Gideon didn’t have clear paths to serving God, but they grew in to the men God created them to be.

The reason I asked these questions this morning wasn’t because my life is so treacherous right now. In fact, I am blossoming in His Love so much right now I am completely overwhelmed by who God is. My mom however is going through one of the roughest times of her life. Her mother has breast cancer, my dad is not anywhere near God or following Him these days, my one brother is medically ill and the other is entering high school and needs a lot of help with projects, etc…I know mom’s reading this will understand. My mom also works full time, basically takes care of my grandma and she does everything for my family. I try to help, but sometimes she won’t let me. I’m not asking you to pity my mother, but pray for her. She needs every single prayer she can get, as does my father.

This has been a great lesson for me and I hope it helps someone else.

Belinda
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The Path To Serving God