We like to be in control, it’s part of our nature. We tend to plan out the direction we would like to see our lives going; which isn’t inherently bad. For example, if you want to be a doctor you need to make decisions your freshman year of college that will help prepare you to reach your goal. The problem we face is not in the planning. It’s about whether or not we are willing to give up on our plan to follow God’s, especially when God may not provide all the details of His plan.
There are many stories in the bible where God says ‘go’ but doesn’t, in my mind, provide adequate information about what will happen from there. God just tells Abraham to ‘go’. Jesus when calling his disciples just says “follow me”. God tells Elijah to go places and provides some details like “you will drink from the brook and I have commanded the ravens to feed you” but Elijah is still missing key details about what he should do there and how long he should stay. In Exodus 7 God gives Moses the overview of his plan, He announces what will happen, but He doesn’t tell Moses the specifics of how He will accomplish it. Only ‘you shall speak all I have commanded you’ (Exodus 7:2) and “Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring my hosts, my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great acts of judgment. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them.” (Exodus 7:4-5).
To go along with that plan requires faith! Faith, not in ourselves, but faith in God and His provision for His plan. It’s easy in those times to convince ourselves to not go along with God’s plan because of insufficient data. Here is a question I have asked myself many times in retrospect: if he gave me all the details would I still have gone? Not only that but if I knew all the details, I would I still trust His power or rely more on my own.
The other day I told my youngest daughter, who is about two and a half, to put her clothes in the hamper. She excitedly picked up her clothes and ran in the direction of where I pointed only moments to later turn around and say “what’s a hamper? I feel like that is the picture of how I should be with God. God points and says go and I immediately and excitedly depart trusting that he will take care of the rest. The problem is I’m more like my 8 year old that can’t stop asking questions like ‘why’ and ‘how’. Our job is not to worry about the details, our job is to be obedient to where God is leading us to go. Luke 12:12 says “for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” It doesn’t say the Holy Spirit will lay out the 10 steps needed for success, or the Holy Spirit will enroll you in a class to teach you all you need to know. It says the Holy Spirit will take care of it at that moment. It’s not always easy, and we should never stop preparing. However, we can move forward with confidence to carry out what God is instructing us to do even if we do not feel qualified, because we can trust that he is faithful to provide what is necessary to complete the task. Ultimately, our success or failure is not dependent upon our power anyways its dependent on our willingness to be obedient and on His power.
-Adam Deering
