When I knew it was time to leave the bench, I also knew exactly what God was calling me to do next. After seven years as a trial attorney and fourteen years serving as a judge, I sensed Him stirring something new in me, and when I finally got quiet enough to listen, the assignment was clear. He was calling me to launch an online women’s ministry and pour into women the same way He had been pouring into me.
You would think that kind of clarity would have settled my heart. Instead, I did what I had been trained to do for nearly three decades. I built a case against it. I questioned whether an online ministry was really my assignment for that season. Me? A woman who knew courtrooms and law libraries, not recording studios and websites? I knew the rules of evidence backward and forward. I didn’t know the first thing about funnels, email lists, or podcasts.
Then one ordinary day, right in the middle of my fretting, the Holy Spirit spoke gently to my heart. He told me I was spending all my energy focused on what I didn’t know how to do, instead of trusting the One for whom nothing is impossible. Luke 1:37 says it plainly, “For nothing is impossible with God.” There I was, studying my own limitations like they were the final ruling in the case, when the only opinion that mattered had already been handed down by Heaven a long time ago.
If you’ve ever argued a similar case in your own heart, friend, this one is for you.
Why We Keep Questioning
Why do praying, capable, faithful women keep circling back to the same doubt? Let me walk you through a few reasons, and I believe at least one will feel like I have been reading your mail.
We confuse our calling with complete clarity.
Somewhere along the way, we decided God owes us the entire map before we will take the first step. He rarely works that way.
When He called Abraham, Hebrews 11:8 tells us, “he went, even though he did not know where he was going.” A little fog on the road ahead does not mean you took a wrong turn, and 1 Corinthians 13:12 reminds us that for now “we see in a mirror dimly.” Clarity tends to come as you walk, not while you sit in the driveway waiting for the whole journey to light up at once.
We measure our calling by the size of our ability instead of the size of our God.
This was my struggle, and it may be yours too. When God handed Moses an assignment at the burning bush, Moses started listing his disqualifications, asking in Exodus 3, verse 11, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” God did not hand him a pile of fresh credentials. He simply answered, “I will be with you.”
The real question was never about Moses, and your real question was never about you.
We mistake the waiting and the wilderness for a wrong turn.
When the door has not opened yet and the season feels dry and quiet, we assume we must have missed God somewhere. The wilderness is not punishment. It is preparation, the same way God led His people through it on purpose, shaping them for the promise on the other side. A delay is not a denial.
We compare our assignment to someone else’s.
We watch another woman walk boldly in her gift and, instead of being encouraged, we shrink. Remember what Jesus told Peter in John 21:22 when Peter got distracted by what John was doing, “What is that to you? You must follow me.” Your assignment was custom-built for you, and comparison will only rob you of the joy of walking in it.
What God Actually Wants You to Know
After we name the reasons we doubt, we need to hear what God actually wants His daughter to know.
He finishes what He starts.
You did not begin this work on your own, and you will not have to finish it on your own either. Philippians 1:6 promises that He “who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.”
He chose you on purpose, long before you had a resume.
He told Jeremiah, a young man who felt completely unqualified, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” in Jeremiah 1:55, then added in verse 7, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.'” Your calling was settled in Heaven before you ever drew your first breath.
You are His masterpiece.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” You are not a rough draft.
Your steps are ordered, even the wobbly ones.
Proverbs 3:5-6 calls us to trust the Lord with all our heart, lean not on our own understanding, and acknowledge Him in all our ways so He can make our paths straight.
Psalm 138:8 assures us, “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.” When you can’t trace His hand, you can still trust His heart.
The same word the Holy Spirit gave me on that ordinary day, I hand right to you now. You have been focused on what you do not know how to do, when the One who called you specializes in the impossible. Matthew 19:26 settles it once and for all. “With God all things are possible.”
Your Purpose Clarity Challenge
Let’s turn all of this into something you can actually do. This is your assignment for the next three days.
On day one, write down everything God has already confirmed, every nudge, scripture, and open door, since Habakkuk 2:2 tells us to write down the revelation and make it plain. On day two, name the fear you have been treating as a fact, and hold it up honestly against the size of your God. On day three, take one obedient step before you feel fully ready, because clarity loves obedience and the next piece of your assignment almost always reveals itself after you move.
A Word to Carry with You
You can stop putting your calling on trial. The verdict came down a long time ago, and Heaven already ruled in your favor. The God who began this good work in you is faithful to finish it, and He has never once needed you to have all the answers. He only asks for a willing, trusting heart. The next time that old question comes whispering, asking if you are really the one for this, you remember whose you are and Who goes before you, then take the next faithful step anyway.
