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PROGRAM D-8053
Do you know the story of Deborah, a judge in Israel? For certain, Deborah was a risk-taker for the Lord!
This woman was way ahead of her time. She had to take an enormous risk: to go herself and lead her army into battle. Barak was the leader of the army, but he said, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go” (Judges 4:8). Maybe he thought she never would agree to go into battle and that would get him off the hook. If so, she fooled him. She said, “Certainly I will go with you. But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours. . .” (Judges 4:10). She recognized that he was not the brave leader he should be, so she took a risk. You can read the whole story in Judges 4—an amazing story of how God gave her and her army victory over their much larger enemy.
I wonder what it is that makes one person willing to take a risk for God, while another is not. Isn’t it true that we are prone to trust those we know, but if we don’t know someone too well, we’re less willing to trust them? No doubt our knowledge of and trust in God has a lot to do with our willingness to take a risk for him. It’s at these times—when there is some risk involved—that we find out whether we truly trust God or not, and how much we trust him. God wants us to take risks as he leads us, and allow him to do through us what we could never do on our own. We should attempt something so great for God that only he could do it.
Psalm 18:36 says: “You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way.” Ron Hutchcraft tells the story of how he had to overcome a fear of walking across a slippery pipe in order to cross a stream so he could see an incredible waterfall. He was afraid to do it and was ready to back out, but his friends encouraged him to walk across the pipe so he could see this beautiful waterfall. He finally took the risk and made it across. He reports that the risk was more than worth it because the view was awesome. When we start across a pipe that looks risky—that “faith pipe” that will take us to new territory for Jesus—as soon as we set foot on it, the pipe becomes a broad path, and our ankles won’t give way! Jesus broadens the path beneath our feet! I love that image.
Walk across the pipe today. Don’t miss the view. Don’t miss what Jesus wants to do in you and through you. Don’t stay where it’s comfortable. Be willing to be an entrepreneur for Jesus. That’s where the abundant life is—doing what only he can do through you.