God's Gone Before Me

For the past few weeks the phrase "God's gone before me" kept surfacing. Some people said it to me for encouragement not knowing that it was something I had begun to make an anthem in my heart. The verse where the phrase comes from says:

And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee; He will be with thee, He will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

Deuteronomy 31:8

Those words are powerful on paper but God didn't want them to stay there. He wanted them to become unshakable truths on which I could stand with confidence.

God gently tested the faith that backed up what I was saying. He wanted to know if was I merely going to say "God's gone before me" or if I was going to choose to live like I believed it too. Was I going to say God had my back but secretly be melting like butter in a hot frying pan?

It is easy to say all the nice Christian platitudes but it is a whole other challenge to live like I truly believe them, and God knew this.

So, he tested my attitudes against the platitudes until finally the first BIG test of my faith arrived.

I felt confident and upbeat as I drove into the parking lot because I had praised my way with music all the way there. Not to mention, up until that point, the challenges of the past few weeks to match my faith to my words were fairly easy because nothing had pressed back against my new growing belief.

But as I stepped out of my car to face a situation I was walking in to with little to no idea of the outcome, suddenly I felt my legs going weak and my arms tingling with the numbing sensation of hyperventilation.

I tried saying "I got this" to calm myself down but then I stopped myself. What was I saying? I didn't have anything at all. Not even an itty bitty grasp.

But God did. So with each step after that I redirected my thoughts by repeating "GOD'S got this".

With each step, peace and joy replaced the panic that had begun to puddle inside my heart. I no longer felt the pressure of striving because God had gone before me then a path was already made. There was no need for me to wonder about what was ahead. God already blazed a trail and was walking down it with me.

That day "God's got this" was no longer a 3 word phrase to counter act the blood from draining out of my brain. It became a belief forged in the fires of faith.

An hour later I walked back to my car with an outcome I didn't want yet with a joy that passed all understanding.

I was (and still am) convinced that "God's got this" situation. And I am not saying that because it is my sworn duty as a Christian. It is something I say after choosing to push back the dark and the lies that would have overwhelmed me had I not truly believed God had gone before me.

Living that belief out has grown me as a person and given wings to my faith. It has emboldened me in the power of Christ and who he is in me. It has made striving that much less appealing. It has given me a bigger perspective of the even bigger God I serve.

He is who he says he is. He will do what he says he will do.

The questions is,

Will you believe him?