God doesn’t show you your future all in one go. He drip-feeds it. He doesn’t give Gideon the whole picture, either. He doesn’t show him all the heroic acts, the battles he’ll win, the size of the armies he’ll send running. If God did that, Gideon would just get scared by his own future. If you saw your future self, you’d probably get freaked out too. The way they hold themselves. The shoulders back and eyes clear. Just how unafraid they look. If you saw your future self after years of drawing close to God and learning your identity as a loved son or daughter – knowing that perfect love casts out fear – you’d see someone not so much different from you as more truly you.
So God will tip you off, here and there. Give you hints. Change your posture. Like He did with Gideon. And here’s the thing, Gideon left fear behind way faster than he could’ve expected. Gideon was slow on the uptake, but when God got hold of him, he was crushing armies, toppling idols, inspiring a nation. The revolution against tyrant fear starts when you agree with God. It’s great to agree with words. But when you start to agree with actions, taking steps you’d never have seen yourself taking even months ago, fear gets flung clean out the window.
What now?
Ask God to show you the areas of fear in your life. Ask Him to give you courage to do something that scares you.
