Jess Connolly is a life-speaker and-truth teller who is passionate about using her words, her time, and anything else God has given her to encourage women to use what they’ve got for His glory and the good of others. She coaches ordinary women in varying seasons to let their obedience lead to abundance when it’s met with God’s power and capacity. Her newest book, You Are the Girl For the Job, is a power-packed work of encouragement that will put your eyes on Jesus and get your feet moving as a worshipful response. It’s a grace to welcome Jess to the farm’s front porch today…
Where is God when injustice strikes?
Human tragedy and social injustice are not new, yet every time a tragedy strikes anew in someone’s life, I believe the devastating pain of others deserves our grief.
When we are forced to confront extreme inequality and oppression, we wonder, “Where is God?”
In these moments of questioning I take comfort in this snapshot of the Bible’s story: the underweaving and working of God’s rescue plan.
The book of Exodus tells us that God was fully engaged, using humans as the catalysts, the agents of change, that resulted in rescue.
God was broken, devastated over the sin that would lead people to annihilate one another, over the breaking of His chosen people.
Where is God in the midst of oppression?
I believe He’s often working miracles on behalf of His people—miracles we couldn’t dream of or see, and He is also stirring, calling, and equipping His people to meet the needs and fight for justice on behalf of their fellow humans.
Our Father was not and is not inactive in times of injustice, but rather He is carefully and intentionally using His favorite tool to activate justice: His people.
We may feel like we’re the ones doing all the work, assuming He is quietly sitting by, when truly, He’s the author of justice and we’re made in His image—made able by Him to do His work and love His people.
No, God’s not idle—He is just working a plan that allows us to be a part of the rescue.
And this is the kind of plan we find in the book of Exodus—the story of the Israelites, the story of Moses.
Moses was born in the midst of extreme oppression and injustice, during the season when Pharaoh was forcing midwives to kill babies at the brink of birth or to throw them into the Nile River. Specifically, they were killing all the male babies, since in their patriarchal culture, women carried no threat.
As we walk a little further into Moses’ story, there’s one important observation we can make along the way.
Patriarchy and sexism and the enemy of our souls may discount women, but God never did and never does.
In fact, He invited many women to rise to the occasion and be His coworkers in the fight against injustice in this story.
Pharaoh ordered that all the baby boys be killed, but he made the fatal error of discounting the power of God amongst the women who would rise up and fight against Him.
The midwives fought by disobeying his law, Moses’ mother fought by hiding her son, Moses’ sister fought by strategizing his rescue, and God even used Pharaoh’s daughter’s gift of mercy to save the man who would come to represent God’s power over Egypt.
Big mistake, Pharaoh. Big mistake, Satan.
Culture can discount women, but our God never will.
In Moses’ case – God uses multiple ordinary women to enact not only his rescue, but ultimately the freedom of the Israelite people.
Our Father used his mother to birth him in the midst of peril, the midwives to keep him alive in holy rebellion, his sister Miriam to hide him and watch him in the Nile, and even Pharaoh’s daughter to raise him in a place of notable repute.
Where is God when His people are hurting? Where is God when abuse and persecution are leaning in on all sides?
He is executing rescue operations, using ordinary people at every step.
We call them the heroes, and we perceive them to be special when, in all actuality, they’re just fallible and feeble individuals like us.
Sometimes their willingness, however reluctant, makes them seem majestic in our eyes—it makes them seem otherworldly and untouchable.
But it has always been Him, always God, beckoning and calling and equipping normal—even those of us who are reluctant – to practice simple obedience so that the rescue plan can have human hands on it.
Make no mistake: God can work through the supernatural.
He can work through the wind and the waves, and He can make the rocks cry out or make the animals talk if we stay silent.
But He chooses to use those who are made in His image, the flesh and blood and fallible kids that He loves to partner with as He fights injustice and oppression.
Make no mistake that He wants to use you—you—to fight the darkness that lives both within and outside of your comfortable boundaries.
Make no mistake that if we’re still in the midst of rescue, He is still in the process of setting things right.
Let’s not make the mistake of missing it because our eyes are focused on ourselves, or because we’re overwhelmed by the size of the fight, or because we’re waiting for a hero to do the work for us.
God has placed you where you’re at, on purpose, for the good of others and His glory.
He’s given you what you need to serve and love and join in the rescue plan.
You are the girl for the job because He is mighty in you.
And that’s a truth that no one—man or otherwise—can discount.
Jess Connolly is a gal who wants to leave her generation more in awe of God than she found it. She loves His Word, the church, color, community, and coffee. She and her husband planted Bright City Church in Charleston, SC, where they live with their four wild and wonderful kiddos and an extremely extroverted dog.
You believe (or want to believe) God has called you and given you purpose, but where do you start? How do you get from feeling stuck to making a move? If this sounds familiar, bestselling author Jess Connolly has a message for you: You Are the Girl for the Job. This book is the biblically-based, gospel-centered pep talk that women need right now.
Let You Are the Girl for the Job be your jumpstart into confident, purposed living, as Jess walks you through the six steps she has used to coach and encourage women for years: set your focus, take stock of the story that has shaped you, face your fear, catch the vision, make a plan, and finally, make your move–all in the bold belief that God has called you to every step of the journey.
In exchange for ordering two copies, you get free access to Jess’ fall coaching series with a host of other gifts! Learn more here.
