Living in Fear or Finding Courage (part 2)

In the last article on living in fear, I talked about the fact that men and women struggle with fear in various forms, but it all goes back to creation when man walked away from a trusted relationship with their Creator and bought into the lies of Satan, thus making fear a cornerstone of his deception. All too often we try to deal with the effects of fear and not the root cause. If you haven’t read the first installment on this subject please read that first.

This article was provoked by the recent “Strong Men’s Conference” I attended, and specifically, when Pastor Troy took us through a brief overview of the story of Gideon in the book of Judges chapter 6. It seems the children of Israel had drifted from their relationship with God and now everyone “Did What Was Right” in their own eye (17:6). This self-centered living produced all kinds of evil so God gave them over to the nation of Midian to teach them the error of their ways. This reminds me of many people who call themselves Christians, yet who do what is right in their own eyes. When the Lord gives them over to their own ways, they complain that God doesn’t love them as his word says yet in truth, he loves them enough to allow pain to come in order to get their attention. So many times in the scripture God pours love out to his people, but when they abuse his generosity he removes his protection and we experience pain and sorrow. So much of our own pain is caused from not listening to the Lord.

Back to the story of Gideon. The pain of Israel’s enemy was so great that they cried to the Lord for help.

Judges 6:6-10

So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.   When they cried out to the LORD because of Midian, the LORD sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. I told you, ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me.”

As in most cases, the Lord chooses a person to lead a movement back to God and his abundant blessing. He chose a man named Gideon. Funny how God often chooses someone who seems to be in the same condition as the rest of us, except for one major thing they have a heart that is willing to listen to God. Ask yourself how ready you are to listen. I often say I am, but then I know if I truly listen he is going to ask me to change something and that often makes me go spiritually deaf. We often say we want God’s help, but at the same time don’t want his direction.  Every time there is a story in the Bible there is also a principle that can be applied to every generation. Gideon’s life displayed a motivation of fear. He was not a man standing up to his enemies, in fact he was doing everything but standing up. He was just like everyone around him except for the responsiveness of his heart when the Lord speaks to him.

Judges 6:12-14

The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!”

“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The LORD brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”

Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

The angel of the Lord doesn’t speak to his fear, he speaks to his heart. Deep down Gideon wants to believe God is able, but circumstance around him speaks the opposite. How many times have we allowed our circumstance to dictate our future to us?  Too many times if we are honest. We need prophetic people around us to tell us the truth rather than listening to the world that tells us lies about who we are. Gideon needed to see that his problem was not Midian, but himself. He was waiting for some external force to give him victory rather than realizing victory was always available to him. Satan loves to hide our potential and, in fact, is scared of it.

The world doctors up how people look and then we feel defeated about who we are. The movies portray people who get everything they want no matter the odds and yet for the rest of us there is struggle and sacrifice that is required for growth and success. Victory in life doesn’t come free, but it can come if fear is challenged.

Gideon underestimated himself and so do most of us. We have an inflated perspective of how things should be and when life with God requires obedience we think we can’t walk the walk. Gideon soon learned that he not only underestimated himself, he also underestimated a stumbling block in his life and the life of his fellow Israelites. They had developed a bondage to idols that needed to be challenged. They needed to be challenged and destroyed. How often do we falsely believe that the idols in our lives are helping us when all the while they are killing us slowly?  It will take the Holy Spirit and scripture to uncover the lies of Satan and the truth of God.

Judges 6:25-31

That night the LORD said to Gideon, “Take the second best bull from your father’s herd, the one that is seven years old. Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. Then build an altar to the LORD your God here on this hill, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down.” So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town. He knew what would happen if they found out who had done it.

Two major enemies in this story are “Fear & Idols” which Gideon had to challenge in order to change he and his friends lives. The same is true for you and me. We can’t defeat Satan and his schemes by wishful thinking, but only through acts of faith and obedience.

Questions:

What “Fear” is the Holy Spirit pointing out to you to challenge? The Holy Spirit will give you help in your pursuit.

What “Idol” is killing your walk with God and ruining your future? The Holy Spirit wants to motivate your heart.

May God bless us to become more than we see so we can be more than we thought.

Pastor Dale