Chosen Grace

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, whose the fairest of them all?”

Now, we’ve all heard this line before. It was spoken by the infamous Evil Queen of the Snow White fairy tale. And although she was the villian, she had one good thing about her: she knew who she was. She was confident in everything she did and wasn’t afraid to show it. She was vain, but she did it with strength and confidence.

She knew who she was and did everything with that in mind, even if it wasn’t always the best.

To be honest with you all, I sometimes think that we all could take the Evil Queen’s approach- minus all the evil she did.

And as I was pondering this, the Holy Spirit led me to the book of Judges, where we find the story of Gideon. Let’s check it out below:

“¹¹ Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. ¹² And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” ¹³ And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” ¹⁴ And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” ¹⁵ And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” ¹⁶ And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” -Judges 6, ESV

Now, I love this story- and I’ll admit I laughed several times reading this. I laughed because Gideon reminded me so much of myself (but I’ll get to that later).

You see, so many times in the above scriptures- God called Gideon out. But He didn’t just call him out by his birth name. No: God called Gideon by who he saw him as: mighty and full of valor.

But Gideon didn’t see this. He only saw himself as weak and useless- the complete opposite of what God had called him to be.

But God, being loving and merciful as He is, saw past Gideon’s doubt of himself. God never gave up on confirming the the good things He had placed inside of Gideon. He looked at his heart, not his outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7).

And the same way that God saw through Gideon- he see’s through us too.

So many times God will assure us that we are created for purpose, redeemed, freed, healed, and loved.

Yet, because our of flesh, we don’t see ourselves this way. We tend to see ourselves as broken, damaged, angry, unworthy, and condemned.

We let the lies of the enemy cloud our judgement. And we often can’t see the promises of God due to the fog of the world.

To be honest with you all, I was like this for a while too. I didn’t see the future God had for me. I was looking to the right and to the left of me- not up the the hills. And like Gideon, every time I would hear a promise God placed over my life- I would immediately have a rebuttal. I was doubting the gifts that God had placed in my life- and I didn’t know who I was.

But God knew who I was. And when I started to really read His word and heed to His voice, God allowed the scales to fall from my eyes. He began to show me that I am loved. He showed me that I am free. He showed me that I have purpose.

And so do you. You reading this post are loved. You reading this post are free. You reading this post aren’t condemned. You have purpose in the kingdom of God.

To wrap up this post, I just want you all to know that we all have our “Gideon Moments”, and that is ok! The important thing is reminding yourself of God’s promises. He promises good things for those who dwell in Him.

He’s doing a good work in you and me. Trust Him.

I encourage you all to take a look in the mirror. Tell me what you see. Do you see someone is freed, loved, restored, and much much more? I do, and I think you will too!

With love,

Malaysia

P.S: Please read the entire chapter 6 of Judges! Also, read Romans 8 and 12- those chapters hold some juicy stuff!

Also, I have linked below a song that goes great with this post. It’s called ‘In Spite of Me’ by Tasha Cobbs ft. Ciara. Listen to the lyrics and I promise you’ll find peace.