That Inner Circle

I am currently participating in Lifeway’s 'Gideon' Bible Study by Priscilla Shirer. Today’s lesson smacked me between the eyes and allowed me to ‘see’ something to which I had previously been blinded.

How many of you are so busy trying to find ‘your ministry’ that you overlook the ‘ministry’ staring you right in the face? Maybe by the time you have finished reading this, you will recognize it!

In today’s lesson, Priscilla Shirer pointed us to Judges 6:27. Before Gideon could begin his ‘ministry’ as one of Israel’s Judges, he had to take care of some ‘ministry’ business at home! First things first! She then directed us to Genesis 18:19 where God stated that Abraham was to teach his children and household to keep the ways of the Lord~before he became the father of an entire nation!

So often we dream about having a huge impact on others, that we forget that we are impacting those closest to us right now! We are so busy LOOKING for a ‘ministry’, that we don’t SEE the one right in front of us!

We were encouraged in today’s study to complete a Circle of Influence~you know, comparing our lives to Acts 1:8…Too often we put so much of our emphasis (and don’t get me wrong, it must be emphasized!) on ‘what can I do to influence/reach the uttermost parts of the world?’, that we neglect our own personal ‘Jerusalem’!

In my second circle (the first one being impacting myself!), I wrote down those three local grandkids I have the privilege of impacting regularly! Yet, my concern has been, “what new ministry can I become involved with at my new church?”, (once again, not a bad thing!), rather than, “In what specific, planned out, and intentional ways can I impact my grandkids?” 

We tend to overlook the inner circles and jump to worrying about how we can impact the outer circles. Why is that? Maybe we are more intimidated by the inner circles? Maybe you are in a situation where you truly fear the inner circles? Many, like me, find it easier to speak to a room full of strangers than to the inner circle~~Who knows why….  Whatever the reason or excuse, I recognized very quickly that my responsibility right now is my inner circle!

I loved the thought I wrote down in my Bible Study book~ My greatest impact is right here, right now in the ordinary rhythms of daily living (based on Priscilla’s statement on page 63).

I posted that as my #LessonsFromGideon hashtag comment. I also knew it was a LightThought (although not so LIGHT!) that I had to share.

What about you?

      Who are you ‘wishing’ you could impact? 

Who ARE you impacting~right here and right now?

  

We can’t be used in the outer circles if we can’t be found faithful in the inner circles!

In the words of the Toby Mac song, “City on our Knees”~

If you gotta start somewhere, why not here...

If you gotta start sometime, why not now…..

Become a part of the inner circle!

Debbie