“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV))

Have you noticed that God doesn’t usually give you the whole picture when He asks you to do something? It’s like putting together a puzzle when you don’t have the front of the box. You’re not sure what it’s going to look like when you’re finished. You can’t see how it will turn out.

For example, you may feel God prompting you to text someone a Bible verse but you have no idea why. You may feel uncomfortable because you’re worried what she’ll think. Later, she may tell you that the verse was exactly what she needed at the time. However, when you sent it, you didn’t have that insight.

Or God may give you a vision with just the first step. He shows you what He wants you to accomplish overall but doesn’t give you the details. Until you take that first step, God doesn’t give you the next one. You have no idea how God is going to take you from step one to the vision’s completion. You don’t have the whole picture.

A few years ago, God gave me a vision about writing a book about His faithfulness. I had never written a book before and didn’t have any idea how it could come to completion. God had only given me the first step. He wanted me to write about how He had been faithful to bring me through a difficult time. It wasn’t until I completed that first step that He gave me the next one. As I followed His direction, God guided me step by step, giving me everything I needed as I stepped out in faith to do the next part.

After the book was completed, I could look back and see the whole picture. I could see how God had met me where I was, each step of the way. And that first step – the one that was so hard to take – didn’t even make it into the book. It was necessary to start the process, and God used it for me personally. But the first step was never meant to be part of the book.

Each time God gives us something to do, we really want the whole picture, don’t we? We think it would be helpful to know all the details. We believe that we would be more confident if we knew each step we would need to take, what would happen in response to each step we took, and how God would work in each situation

Yet, if God gave us the whole picture, we wouldn’t be walking by faith with Him. Instead, we would likely move forward on our own.

Moreover, having the whole picture wouldn’t necessarily help. The truth is that we might not be able to handle the whole picture if God gave it to us up front. It might be too overwhelming for us to take it all in.

We see an example of this in Moses’s life. When God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, He gave Moses many of the details about where He wanted Moses to go, what He wanted Moses to do, who He wanted Moses to talk to, what He wanted Moses to say, and how the people would respond.

• First, God told Moses to go and gather the elders of Israel together, what he should say to the elders, and how the elders would respond (Exodus 3:16-18).
• Second, God told Moses to go to the king of Egypt with the elders, what he should say to the king of Egypt, and that the king of Egypt would not let the Israelites leave (Exodus 3:18-19).
• Finally, God told Moses that He would do the work so that the king of Egypt would let them go and they would leave with the Egyptians’ riches (Exodus 3:20-22).

In short, God gave Moses the whole picture.

When God was finished, we see that Moses was still stuck on step one. Moses asked God, “But suppose they [the elders] will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’” (Exodus 4:1 (NKJV)).

God had just told Moses how the elders of the Israelites would react. God told Moses that they would believe him – that they would “heed” his voice (Exodus 3:18 (NKJV)). But Moses was focused on himself and his own abilities. It’s like he shut down after that first direction. Maybe he began thinking about it, trying to figure out how it would all work.

Did Moses even hear the rest of what God told him in that moment? We don’t know. But it must have been overwhelming to hear about it all.

How often are we like Moses? We also get stuck on the first step. Instead of trusting God and stepping out in obedience, we get anxious. We ask ourselves, “How could I do that?” Or we worry about what people will think. For that reason, it would be easy for us to get overwhelmed if God gave us more than that first step.

Rather than focusing on our own abilities – or lack thereof – we need to trust God. God is able to help us with everything He wants us to do. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way” (Psalm 37:23 (NKJV)).

So stop waiting for that step-by-step plan. Don’t worry about whether God’s given you the whole picture. Step out in faith when God gives you that very first step. Trust Him and see the amazing things that He will do.

*Photo by Benjamin Zanatta on Unsplash