Devotions

Gideon was hiding in the winepress threshing wheat out of sight of the enemies of Israel, the Midianites.  While he was there an angel of the Lord appeared to him and addressed him as “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

Gideon’s response was to remind the angel that it sure didn’t look like God was with him. It looked as if God had abandoned them. What followed is an exchange between Gideon and the angel of the Lord where Gideon seeks to prove that what the angel is saying really is true, that God is going to use Gideon to defeat the Midianites.  When the exchange is over, Gideon builds an altar to the Lord [Judges 6:13-24]

However, before God sends Gideon out into battle with the Midianites, Gideon must battle something in his own backyard.  “That same night the LORD said to him, ‘Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.’”  [Judges 6:25, NIV]

Remember all those problems that seem to beset us at times?  Well before God will use us, He often requires us to take care of problems of our own creation, problems that have grown up in our own “backyards.”

Sometimes we put things between Him and us, and for the strength of God to flow into us to be used of Him, we must remove the things that hamper the flow of His strength. Gideon had to tear down an altar his family had made to a pagan idol, Baal.  In its place the angel tells him to “build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God.”

God gives us the strength and the wisdom to recognize those things in our own “backyard,” those things of our own making that hinder His life in us.  He helps us to find and to tear them down so that He can use us.

One of my favorite OT heroes is Gideon. The Midianites had oppressed the Israelites for seven years.  It was so bad they were living in the mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.  Whenever harvest came, the Midianites invaded the country and ravaged the land.  One day an angel of the Lord appeared to a man named Gideon and addressed him with a strange proclamation, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

That proclamation of mighty warrior was given while Gideon was hiding in the winepress threshing his grain out of sight of the Midianites. I love Gideon’s response: “But sir, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us?” [Judges 6:1-13]

Oh my, ever uttered those words?  I have.  Maybe not using the exact same words, but definitely using the exact same meaning.  How come if God is with me all this is happening to me?  If God loves me, why is He allowing me to have all these problems?

Some people think God causes problems. I don’t. (But I think He’ll use the ones that are plentiful around us.) There are enough problems to go around all by themselves—circumstances, other people’s choices, our own rebellious ways, and bad choices, in other words, life. If God gave us free will, we are certainly going to experience the problems free will brings.

To get a correct answer, you must ask a correct question.  The question really is not “if God loves me, why do I have all these problems?”  The correct question is, “Can God see me through my problems?”

And the correct answer is, “yes.”  How do I know that is the right answer?  Because God already took care of our biggest problem, the problem of sin and separation from Him.  Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”  [NIV]

If He resolved the biggest, He is certainly able to help us resolve the rest.

I could watch birds all day! When I see a bird flying in the sky, I just want to raise my voice in praise to God. I especially love the hawks in our area.

I remember being on a walk one morning and a hawk was making those “lazy circles in the sky.” (As the song goes!) I heard the LORD whisper to me in that moment that He loved me and was near to me and that everything would be all right. Shortly after I was diagnosed with two auto-immune diseases. Now each time I see a hawk, I remember His promise and I praise Him.

I was driving to an appointment recently, thinking about a couple conversations I had just had with my two closest friends. I was crying and praying about some of the things they were going through. When I got home, I found a bird, a wild juvenile peahen tucked away in the corner of our patio. She stayed all day, sometimes looking in our patio window, or sleeping on the door mat, wandering around the yard and into the garden. Even when I went into the backyard, she did not fly away but simply walked to a different part of the yard.

I heard God whisper to me that He was close, He heard the despair and the cry of my heart. I realized that He brought His comfort right to my doorstep! And I praised Him.

 Job told his comforters: “Just ask the animals, and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you….For the life of every living thing is in his hand, and the breath of every human being.” [Job 12: 7, 10 NLT]

I love to read. I have always loved to read. I remember as a child sitting at the breakfast table and reading the cereal box. I have Bibles with various translations, both hardcopy and on my Kindle. Same with books. While I love hardcopy books, I find they often have print that is too small for me. I can adjust the print size on my Kindle, so most often, you will see me reading on my Kindle.

I am currently reading a series by Linda J. White. In the book the main character is a woman who works with a dog doing K-9 search and rescue. In the series, she finds a faith in Christ despite multiple traumas. She is led to faith by a friend who not only speaks words of faith but displays the character of Christ Jesus.

At one point, the characters are faced with the concept of evil. What the author wrote as a response touched my soul … “It’s a crazy world, but I believe. Terrible things happen, but I believe. Death may come, but I believe.” [From “When Evil Finds Us: K-9 Search and Rescue Book 3” by Linda J. White]

How often when we face the evil and wickedness in this world, we ask the question, “Why?”  Habakkuk went round and round with God over that question. He came to the same conclusion as the young woman in the book. He said it a bit differently, but the conclusion is the same. “…but I believe.”

Habakkuk 3: 17-19: “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.” [NLT]

“…but I believe.”

David wrote psalm 57 as he fled from Saul into a cave.  It was a cry for mercy, a cry for God’s purpose to be fulfilled, a cry for the evidence of God’s love and His faithfulness, and a cry for David’s soul to awaken.

Listen to verse 8, “Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre!  I will awaken the dawn.”

What David is saying here is elementary, “Wake up David!”  I know that is what I often feel like doing–shouting at myself to “Wake up Terry!”

When we battle God, when we turn a deaf ear to His pleas, when we ignore His purpose for our lives, it isn’t long before our soul simply goes to sleep.  The voice of the Lord becomes more and more distant until finally we simply do not hear it anymore.  It isn’t that He’s quit talking; it’s that we’ve become deaf to His voice.

As David was in a literal cave, pursued by his enemies, crying for God’s mercy and purpose in his life in Psalm 57, I sometimes find myself in a spiritual cave.  When I do, it is a cave dug by my own disobedience, my own attitudes, and my own rebellions.

“Awake, my soul!” tells me it is time to repent and leave the cave, time to realign my attitudes with the will of God, time to admit His purpose in me and time to change.

Warfare, enemies, battles, weapons, none of those sets our heart to singing; but everyone is a necessary part of the Christian vocabulary.  As Christians we do not live in a lovely rose garden, we live in the middle of a battleground.  In this world we have tribulation.

The next time you read the NT Epistles of Paul and James and Peter and others, notice the words mixed in with love and compassion and joy that speak of our warfare in this life, words like persevere, fight, resist, weapons, strongholds, captive, deceive, weary.  On and on they go, charting a course through life that is full of the love and joy and comfort found in Christ, amidst the trials, temptations, suffering and battles.

We would be foolish indeed if we did not recognize that we are surrounded by enemies on all sides that want to see us fall, want to see us bring shame on the name of Christ. And how silly we look to non-believers when we get in the middle of a battle and don’t know who we are fighting or what weapons we should be carrying.  More than that, how must we break the heart of our Savior when we fall into the trap of battling our fellow Christians.

One of the saddest things about the Church of Jesus Christ in this world is how we fight among ourselves and how we end up killing our wounded. Paul wrote, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.”  [2 Cor 10:3-4 NIV]

Our brothers and sisters are not our enemies – even when they act like they are.  Our enemies are the devil, the world, and our very own flesh.  Let’s recognize what we are fighting and learn about our weaponry.

I was reading in I Chronicles. There is a lot of exciting stuff in 1 Chronicles and there is a lot of rather “boring” passages as well. As I was reading, however, my interest peaked surprisingly … not in the exciting sections, but in one of the less so.

“These are the numbers of the men armed for battle who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul’s kingdom over to him, as the Lord had said:  men of Judah, carry shield and spear—6800 armed for battle ….”  [I Chronicles 12:23-38]

On and on the list goes, men of Simeon, warriors ready for battle; Zadok a brave young warrior; men of Ephraim, brave warriors; men of Issachar who understood the times and knew what Israel should do; men of Zebulun experienced soldiers prepared for battle with every type of weapon; men of Naphtali carrying shields and spears; men of Dan ready for battle; men of Asher, experienced soldier prepared for battle.

As I read, I was also reminded of Psalm 144, a song of David, “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.”

The Bible is very clear that we have three enemies in this life … the world, the flesh and the devil. It is also very clear that the weapons we use for each of these enemies are different.  We do not battle the world the same way we battle the devil or the flesh. Different enemies; different weapons.

The problem sometimes seems to be that often we have no idea who or what we are doing battle with.  So we arm ourselves with weapons designed to defeat the devil, when what we really need are the weapons to defeat the world.  Battling the wrong enemy with the wrong weapons nets us nothing but frustration and grief.

We need to pray for the ability to discern our enemies and the wisdom to choose our weapons rightly.

Read Acts 4 and we’ll see many common traits among those early Christians. Courage to act and courage to speak.  Radiance that comes from being with Jesus. Obedience.  Praise and Prayer and Power.

We often see those same traits exhibited in those with whom we fellowship. Those marks of the Christian are to be highly appreciated and desired.

There is another trait in Acts 4 that is often more elusive. It comes at the end of the chapter.  “All the believers were one in heart and mind.  No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” [vs32-37]

Unity in Christ.  You would think it would be so easy, after all we are the Body of Christ, we are all attached to the same Head.  But history as well as current experience has given testimony to the fact that Unity is often the one thing missing among us.

Too often we think that uniformity is what God desires, that everyone should be like us, talk like us, think like us, act like us. And if they don’t, they certainly cannot claim fellowship with Christ. That is definitely not so.

When we compare ourselves to each other, we get in real trouble.  Comparisons always need to be aimed in a different direction, straight up, not side to side.  I can always find someone who is worse than me, and ignore those who are better, but when I compare myself with my Master and see how far I still have to go, then I realize I don’t have the time to be condemning others for their walk, I’ve got too much to do about me!

I woke up recently tired and a bit bedraggled.  I knew what I needed, what I had been lacking for a few weeks. So, I curled up on the couch with my Bible and begin to read and to pray. When my prayer and praise life is interrupted by life in general, I feel spiritually weak.  There is no power in my life when there is no praise and prayer.

Acts 4 begins with the arrest of Peter and John for speaking to the people about the resurrection of Jesus. Later they were brought before the members of the council to explain both the healing of a crippled beggar and their bold words. The Council recognized they were ordinary men with no training in the Scripture, but “They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.” [vs 13b NLT]

After being warned not to speak again about Jesus, Peter and John left the presence of the rulers and went back to their own people. They reported what had happened and all that the chief priest and elders had said to them.  After the people of God listened to the account, they immediately raised their voices together and began to praise, and then they began to pray.

“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them.”  They praised God for who He is and what He had done. Then they prayed, “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.”  [4:23-30]

As soon as they were done, “the place where they were meeting was shaken.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”  [4:31]

Praise combined with Prayer equals Power.  It was so in Peter’s and John’s time; it is so in ours.

Three daily verses populate my email inbox each morning. Often those verses reflect something I am thinking about, sometimes even confirming a devotion I sent out recently, or plan to send out in the next few days. (I usually have a few days’ ready to post.)

My practice is to read not just those verses each day but the verses in context in my Bible. One recent verse was part of Psalm 94.

“I cried out, ‘I am slipping!’ but your unfailing love, O Lord, supported me. When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.” [Psalm 94:18-19 NLT]

Psalm 94 is a plea to God for help in a world plagued by wickedness and injustice. The Psalmist calls out to God as the highest judge to intervene. It is also a song that expresses trust in God to ultimately set things right and offers both comfort and peace of heart to those who trust Him.

It is a difficult thing to see wickedness flourish, but we have the promise that wickedness and injustice will not prevail. Our God is the highest authority and one day wrongs will be made right. One day those who reject his authority will receive what they have chosen.

One day righteousness will prevail for all eternity. Even so, come LORD Jesus. Amen