Sometimes, God moves quietly in your life as He works behind the scenes. Training you privately. Teaching you through His Word in the stillness of your home.

He may ask you to keep those lessons to yourself as you treasure them in your heart while the mystery of His plan for your life unfolds like layers of fabric miraculously stretching further than you ever thought possible.

But then the moment arrives when He commands you to be strong and courageous, to march around the walls standing in your way, to run toward the battle line to defeat your giant.

To pray for your enemies – those that peppered your thoughts with seeds of doubt, even ridiculing and belittling your desires to serve God.

The Lord may instruct you to step out in faith when you’re alone in the kitchen, with a few friends in your little corner of the world, or when the whole world is watching. When He does this, keep your eyes fixed on Him and your heart tuned into His voice.

Don’t look at the naysayers. Don’t give the critics, those with negativity wrapped around their hearts like life-stealing pythons, a second glance. Ignore the doubters. Brush past the rude remarks.

Forget your past failures. (Read that again.)

When God gives you specific instructions after He’s trained you for such a time as this, and you obey, the whole world will know that there is a God, and He is here NOW.

Almighty God will bring victory as eyes are opened to His presence, lives are changed, and battles are won. Hearts will repent. Faith will increase – and spread.

All your years of training, being excluded, forgotten, and made fun of will be worth it when your obedience to God’s instruction brings glory and honor to Him.

He is the One who is worthy of it all, the One who came to save, the One who doesn’t want a single soul to perish.

And HE is the One the whole world needs NOW. 

“David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” 

(1 Samuel 17:45-47 NIV, emphasis my own.)