Purpose Study Bible 264: Your Part, Our Part, His Part

The first line of Deborah's song sung to commemorate Israel's victory was:

“When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves—praise the Lord!" (Judges 5:2).

The leaders in Israel finally led and the people responded accordingly, and then the Lord got involved:

“When you, Lord, went out from Seir, when you marched from the land of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens poured, the clouds poured down water. The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel" (Judges 5:4-5).

You have a purpose, something for you to do that only you can do. It may involve leading or you may be required to contribute your gifts to a team that you are not leading. The important thing is for you to know who you are, what you can do, and then get busy doing it—preferably with others who also know who they are. When that happens, God is released to do what only He can do because His people are accepting responsibility to do what He created them to do.

What were you created to do? Do you know? Are you willing to pay the price to find out? With whom can you fulfill your purpose and express your creative gifts? It says in Zephaniah 2:17, "For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs" (NLT).

That's the dynamic we see in Judges—when the people engaged, God was activated. In Judges 5:2, Deborah and the people were singing, but our goal is to have God sing over us because of us. That will only take place when we each accept our role in God's plan and go about joyfully being who God made us to be.