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Don’t Confuse The Gift With The Package

Newsflash: Your Spiritual Leader Is Flawed

SYNOPSIS: Your spiritual leader is flawed! Gifted, yes, but also flawed. So don’t confuse the gift with the package. They may be a brilliant communicator or a miracle-working faith healer or mesmerizing worship leader yet still be capable of misappropriating money or having an affair or promoting false teaching as much as any other leader who has fallen into one or all of those moral failures. So lift your leader to God in prayer today. They’re likely wrestling with a personal flaw or a powerful temptation. Instead of idolizing them – or being critical of them – intercede for them. That’s the best way to return the favor for their spiritual oversight in your life.

The Journey// Focus: Judges 11:29-31

At that time the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he went throughout the land of Gilead and Manasseh, including Mizpah in Gilead, and from there he led an army against the Ammonites. And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. He said, “If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give to the Lord whatever comes out of my house to meet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

From a historical perspective, Israel may have been scraping the bottom of the barrel when Jephthah was chosen to lead them. God had an altogether higher purpose in using this unlikely man as a judge, deliverer and leader of the nation, but Jephthah was a piece of work. He was an outcast in his family, literally and figuratively. Born from a union between his father and a prostitute (Judges 11:1), his brothers from another mother flat-out rejected his legitimacy to their father’s inheritance. And they were not shy in telling him why he would do well to get the heck out of Dodge (Judges 11:2).

As a result, Jephthah removed himself from his father’s “real” family—there is some indication that it wasn’t just a good idea that he leave, it was good for his health, as in, they would have killed him. He lived in exile, and while there, developed both quite a reputation as a fighter and a band of marauders who made their living taking what they wanted, perhaps even exhorting money in exchange for protection from the locals (Judges 11:3).

Now the Israelites had once again fallen under the dominion of a foreign nation—this time, the Ammonites—and no one else in Israel stepped up to the plate as a leader. So the elders turned to someone they despised but whose fighting skills they reasoned would serve them well now that they needed a deliverer. They came with hat in hand to Jephthah to ask
him to lead (Judges 11:4-6). Jephthah agreed, but only after extracting an admission that they had been jerks to him all his life and that they would make him ruler over them should he win the battle against the Ammonites (Judges 11:7-11). They didn’t have much of a choice, so they agreed to his conditions.

Now here is where the story gets even weirder: as Jephthah leads Israel to war, we are told that the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him (Judges 11:29), but in the very next two verses we see that the first thing he does is to make one of the most foolish vows you can imagine:

Meanwhile Jephthah had vowed to the Lord that if God would help Israel conquer the Ammonites, then when he returned home in peace, the first person coming out of his house to meet him would be sacrificed as a burnt offering to the Lord! (Judges 11:30-31, LB)

Alternative meanings have been assigned to this rash vow to sanitize it for our modern minds. Precisely because of the juxtaposition of these two verses with the antecedent verse, that is, how could someone filled with the Holy Spirit make such an evil vow, commentators have suggested that Jephthah’s declaration really meant that he would force his daughter (the first thing coming out of his house) to become the living sacrifice of a young woman living in perpetual virginity. But the simplest way to read the verse is to understand that he meant to literally offer a human sacrifice if the Lord gave him victory.

Pretty messed up, wouldn’t you say? So the question is legitimate: how could someone filled with the Holy Spirit make such an evil declaration? And perhaps we wonder that in our own context when we see leaders who have been uniquely gifted by God turn around and say weird things or do dumb stuff. How could an amazingly gifted communicator or a miracle-working faith healer or mesmerizing worship leader misappropriate money or have an illicit affair or promote false teaching?

I think the easiest explanation for that is simply that we should never confuse the gift with the package. In other words, God’s gift is always placed within flawed human packages—and even if the person so gifted never goes off the rails, they are still sin-broken people. The fact is, God uses broken people to accomplish his purposes, and that is a grace to his people. If he used only the perfect, he would use no one.

Of course, that does not excuse bad behavior; it just explains it. So the bottom line is that as you view the gifted spiritual leaders in your life, celebrate the gift that God has placed upon their ministry but don’t idolize the person. Like you, they too are human. Furthermore, don’t limit God from empowering you with his Holy Spirit by thinking you are too flawed and unqualified. Remember, as someone has said, God doesn’t choose the qualified, he qualifies the chosen.

Thank God for his gifts. They are a grace to us.

Going Deeper: Lift your spiritual leader in prayer today. He or she is probably wrestling with a personal flaw. Instead of idolizing them, intercede for them.

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Who Will Be God in Your Life?

Arresting Spiritual Drift

SYNOPSIS: Who is going to be God in your life? That’s a pertinent question for you today because you’re going to worship someone or something. Wherever you place your unmitigated dependence and spend your full-throttled energy or to whomever you give your singular devotion has become your god. Of course, we don’t worship literal images made of wood, stone, silver, or gold like the ancient Israelites did, but we are just as susceptible to the seduction of less visible but highly sophisticated idols like money, sex, and power, that is, earthly security, momentary pleasure, and misused control? Take it from the ancient Israelites—there is only one God who is worthy of your unalloyed zeal. They learned that the hard way so you don’t have to.

The Journey// Focus: Judges 10:15-16

But the Israelites pleaded with the Lord and said, “We have sinned. Punish us as you see fit, only rescue us today from our enemies.” Then the Israelites put aside their foreign gods and served the Lord. And he was grieved by their misery.

Same song, twenty-ninth verse: Israel abandons the worship of God only to chase after the local deities of the Canaanites. So God lifts his hand of blessing from them and allows them to have what they want—a visible, controllable, good luck charm god. But as before, the same sad results ensue: Israel is left defenseless against cruel enemies, their agrarian economy collapses, their families suffer undue hardship and their lives are miserable under the rule of foreign gods and foreign nations. Then, predictably, they come to themselves, cry out to God, repent, and God sends a rescuer—judge after judge who rises up to bail them out. That is the story repeated over and over in Judges.

Of course, we have the advantage of looking back at this four-hundred-year period of on-again, off-again religion and viewing it only as a relatively short snapshot of history. It wasn’t. There were long patterns of obedience and blessing on Israel’s part—ten, twenty, thirty years of faithfulness to God. But then Israel would cycle into spiritual lassitude and moral drift until finally, they were into full-on backsliding. And the oppressive consequences would follow—ten, twenty, thirty years of domination by godless and ruthless enemies.

So why didn’t the children of Israel learn their lesson after the first beating? Why did they drift into idol worship over and over again? What was their infatuation with other gods? Again, we look back upon their history without understanding the long periods of time that the nation cycled through, and in so doing we fail to realize that we are prone to the same kind of drift and wrong dependencies as they were—we are just a little more sophisticated with our worship of idols. The Quest Study Bible offers some reasons for their infatuation with local idols, and as you ponder these that follow, see if you can identify your own tendencies to drift from utter dependence and ruthless obedience to God:

  1. Idols were physical objects that could be seen (Lev 26:1). Israel’s God, on the other hand, was unseen.
  2. Idols could be carried, controlled, and confined. Israel’s God, however, was an awesome and mysterious God who could not be manipulated by his people. He “moved” whenever and wherever he wanted.
  3. Foreign gods were thought to have power over crops, a prime concern of the Israelites. The people were superstitious and didn’t want to risk their harvests by offending the pagan gods.
  4. Some foreign gods were believed to give fertility to the womb. The worship of these gods involved religious prostitution (1Ki 14:24) and other sexually immoral practices, which appealed to the sensual desires of the Israelites. The Israelites may have concluded that it was better to indulge in these pleasurable activities than to displease the gods of fertility.
  5. Idol worship was a cultural norm. The Israelites often found it easier to join in local customs than to go against them.

Who is going to be God in your life? That is a pertinent question for you today because you are going to worship someone or something. Your god is whatever you are putting your full-throttled dependence upon and giving your singular devotion to. Of course, we don’t worship literal images made of wood, stone, silver, or gold like the ancient Israelites did, but wouldn’t you agree that we are just as susceptible to the seduction of less visible but highly sophisticated idols like money, sex, and power, that is, earthly security, momentary pleasure and misused control?

If you are placing importance, expending energy, and make a personal investment in things that drown out your full-throttled devotion and singular devotion to God, you have made them into an idol. But here’s the deal: at the end of the day, those things will have amounted to nothing. In fact, they will have done real harm to the blessings that God would have poured out in your life had you waited upon him in devotion and dependence.

If reading through this is convicting you at all, I would suggest you quickly get on your knees and cry out to God in sincere repentance, as the Israelites did. Put aside your wrong dependencies and misplaced devotions and worship God only. Perhaps he will be grieved by your misery and reach out to you in love.

No, not perhaps—he really will reach out to you in love.

Going Deeper: Where have you put devotion and dependence on someone or something other than God? Arrest that spiritual drift by crying out to God, rejecting your false gods, and turning fully toward him. Allow him to bless you once again—he really wants to.

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Redemptive Patience

Try Enjoying Your Trials

SYNOPSIS: Benjamin Franklin said, “those things that hurt, instruct.” In review of the growth in your life, you have probably found that to be true, as I have. The best lessons in life have come from the things we wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves: a failure on a test, the break-up of a romance, the loss of a job, the denial of a dream. Of course, at every one of life’s speedbumps there is a choice either to get bitter or to get better. It all depends on our response to these difficulties. If we choose the better route of patiently and joyfully enduring our trials, God promises to give us maturity, wisdom, lasting riches, eternal reward, and a variety of other divine gifts. So, if you’re going through a trial, think about this spiritual principle: bad happens to me so that good things can happen in me so that eternal things can happen through me.

Project 52—Memorize:
James 1:2-3

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Benjamin Franklin said, “those things that hurt, instruct.” In review of the growth in your life, you have probably found that to be true, as I have. The best lessons in life have come from the things we wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves: a failure on a test, the break-up of a romance, the loss of a job, the denial of a dream.

Of course, at every one of life’s speedbumps there is a choice either to get bitter or to get better. It all depends on our response to these difficulties. If we choose the better route of patiently and joyfully enduring our trials, here are a few of the God-ordained growth outcomes that James mentions:

  • Maturity—Verses 2-4: Patiently and redemptively enduring trials takes us through a cycle from pain to patience to perfection.
  • Wisdom—Verses 5-8: Painful trials always cause us to scratch our heads and seek guidance for a way forward. For the believer, this is always an opportunity to go to God—through prayer, by his Word, and through his people—to ask for wisdom. And God will always give it in liberal amounts.
  • True Riches—Verses 9-11: Trials have a way of reminding both poor and rich that wealth and material things are fleeting, but our relationship with God isn’t. When everything else fades from view, the true richness of belonging to God is all the more appreciated.
  • Eternal Reward— Verses 12-15: Patience in suffering will be rewarded with the crown of life on the day we stand in eternity before God. This life will soon pass, and eternal life will begin. Enduring suffering for a season—even if it is an entire season of life—will seem like a blip on the radar a billion years into our eternal life. Bad happens to me so that good things can happen in me so that eternal things can happen through me.
  • Sundry Gifts— Verses 16-18: Suffering redemptively also has a way of helping us to appreciate the variety of God’s gifts that we might otherwise overlook. We become much more sensitive to life, and thus, much more grateful to God.

Suffering is never much fun. No one in his or her right mind would purposely choose it. But when pain finds us, if we dedicate ourselves to going through it redemptively, the reward will be the joy of our spiritual transformation.

“Don’t you realize that someday you won’t have anything to try you, or anyone to annoy you again?  There will be no opportunity in heaven to learn or to show the spirit of patience…If you are to practice patience, it must be now.” ~A.B. Simpson

Reflect and Apply:  Take a moment to thank God for those things that you have suffered—or are currently suffering. They hurt, but better yet, they have been instructive. They are helping you, causing you to move closer to the Father., who is standing by you, sustaining, strengthening and perfecting your character.  For that, you can, in faith, express heartfelt gratitude.

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This Is What Happens When We Forget God

When Culture Turns Your Stomach, Then Turn Your Heart To God

SYNOPSIS: Predictably, what we see and sense today at both the highest and the lowest levels of culture is what happens when, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn lamented, “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” May we never get used to spreading cancer of sin! May we never feel at home in this present world the way it is now. As believers, we must let the moral decay of the culture turn our stomachs, but then turn our hearts to God in urgent and humble intercession for a great spiritual awakening in in our land.

The Journey// Focus: Judges 9:56-57

In this way, God punished Abimelech for the evil he had done against his father by murdering his seventy brothers. God also punished the men of Shechem for all their evil. So the curse of Jotham son of Gideon was fulfilled.

Admittedly, this is a weird story, and it’s even weirder that it was included in the Bible. Like a few others we have come across as we read the Old Testament devotionally, this is a head-scratcher. But at the end of the day, this story of Abimelech’s brief but brutal rule as a judge of Israel and his abrupt, gruesome death is a reminder of what happens in a person, and in a society, when God has been left out of the picture.

Abimelech was one of Gideon’s sons—one of seventy or so. And it just so happens that he was the one son from Gideon’s union with a concubine who lived in a different town, Shechem. So there was probably no love lost with his many siblings; he was probably looked down upon by his brothers his whole life. There is a good chance Abimelech had a chip on his shoulder (that unfortunately ended with a millstone on his head—literally. See Judges 9:50-55).

So Abimelech decided to do away with his seventy brothers—which he did in the most grisly fashion (Judges 9:5): likely beheaded at one time. He killed all but one, Gideon’s youngest son, Jotham, who escaped and hid, and then resurfaced with an incendiary prophecy (Judges 9:7-21). This prophecy was a kind of “pox on both your houses” statement that ultimately came to pass. The prophecy was that in selecting Abimelech to be their king, the citizens of Shechem would end up paying for it with their lives and that Abimelch would likewise come to a brutal end for the murder of his brothers. That is the rest of the story of Judges 9.

Now take away the raw brutality of this story, sanitize it a bit, and what you have is the story of leadership in our culture these days. Far too common is the way leaders attain power and the way the citizens surrender power to them. Lying, cheating, doing whatever it takes to make their opponent look bad, saying one thing to get elected then leading another, coming off as a servant of the people but living like a king once in power seems to be just the way it is in our political world. Often in elections, we feel like we have no choice but to hold our nose to cast our ballots. But we get the leaders we deserve.

Why? Simple answer: men have forgotten God. The writer of Judges prophetically summed up our twenty-first century world in the last verse in this book when he wrote, “There was no controlling moral authority to govern peoples’ lives, so everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) Unfortunately, in our day, as was the case in the day of the Judges, “what was right”, without the presence of the “Controlling Moral Authority”, without fail produces moral, cultural, economic and global chaos.

Predictably, what we see and sense today at the highest as well as the lowest levels of culture is what happens when, as Alexander Solzhenitsyn lamented, “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” In his famous Templeton Address, “Men Have Forgotten God”, Solzhenitsyn said

“The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century…Yet we have grown used to this kind of world; we even feel at home in it.”

May we never get used to it! May we never feel at home in this present world the way it is now. As believers, we have the urgent calling to humble ourselves before God, acknowledge our sin, repent and turn to him for the healing of our land. As disgusted as you may feel reading Judges 9, let the moral decay of America turn your stomach, then turn your heart to God in intercession for a spiritual awakening once again in our land.

Who knows, God may give us a revival like he did throughout the book of Judges as his people cried out to him. Thankfully, God has made a way for that, even in our day:

If the people who are called by my name will humbly pray to me and repent and turn away from the evil they have been doing, then I will hear them in heaven, forgive their sins, and make their land prosperous again. (2 Chronicles, 7:14)

Going Deeper: Read 2 Chronicles 7:14 and pray your way through it on behalf of your nation today.

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Stay Alert To Sin

Be Killing Sin, Or Sin Will Be Killing You

SYNOPSIS: The story of Gideon’s dramatic rise and precipitous fall in Judges 6-8 is a classic reminder that it is not just a strong start that counts, it is finishing well that is the essential thing in our journey with God. So stay alert to sin. As the Puritan preacher, John Owen put it, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

The Journey// Focus: Judges 8:27

Gideon made a sacred ephod from the gold and put it in Ophrah, his hometown. But soon all the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his family.

Conflicted. That is what Gideon was, as we see in Judge 8. Gideon was a conflicted man, at odds with his own beliefs and his calling. But he is not alone, because most leaders are. And so are most people, whether they are believers or not. You see, people live with a persistent sin nature that early and often rises up to tempt them with attitudes and actions that are incongruent with their most deeply held values. Conflicted, that is what we are, hopelessly and helplessly—without daily submission to our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Consider Gideon for a moment. In the previous chapters, we find that he was at once humble (Judges 6:15), obedient (Judges 7:8), and dependent on God (Judges 7:15), yet as we see in this chapter, he was prideful, self-sufficient and disobedient.

Gideon went out to fight Midian in the power of the Lord and routed a far superior army in a stunning victory, but he came back a ruthless man (Judges 8:13-21), arrogantly refusing to be Israel’s king yet living like one anyway (Judges 8:22-24, 29-31), and disobedient in making a golden ephod that would lead Israel to worship it as an idol (Judges 8:27). The text say the golden ephod he made, representing his power, his success and his status among the Israelites, became a trap for Gideon and his family (Judges 8:27).

What a quick and disappointing turn around. His impossible victory over Midian was one for the ages. Gideon’s band of three hundred fighting men is being talked about to this day, used as an example of what God can do with a just few who are fully submitted to him. Yet within days of this victory, his base nature was taking over, and it led him to make decisions that set the stage for Israel to not only drift from God under Gideon’s watch by worshiping the golden ephod, but to plunge headlong into national idolatry after he died:

As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping the images of Baal, making Baal-berith their god. They forgot the Lord their God, who had rescued them from all their enemies surrounding them. Nor did they show any loyalty to the family of Gideon, despite all the good he had done for Israel. (Judges 8:33-35)

As we seek to make sense of this jaw-dropping spiritual reversal, Gideon’s story reminds us that the same sin nature that wreaked havoc in his life will mess us up just as quickly if we are not careful. Here are a few sobering lessons coming to us from Gideon’s story that we would do well to keep in mind:

  1. Charisma will only take you so far; it will be character that keeps you there. Obviously, Gideon had the ability to inspire others to follow him into an impossible battle, but his core values were not such that he could resist the temptations that came his way after the victory. Arguably, the true test of character is success.’
  2. Character issues that are left unchecked will resurface at some point in our lives, sooner or later. The only way to effectively deal with our sin is to allow the Lord to obliterate it completely. It if is not destroyed, it will come back to damage us. Whatever goes underground will resurface at some point.
  3. A victory today does not guarantee a victory tomorrow. We cannot rest on our laurels of past accomplishment; submission to God must be a daily victory. That is why Jesus said true discipleship involves taking up your cross daily to follow him. (Luke 9:23)
  4. Pride is an ever-present enemy of God’s plan to use us mightily for him. Pride is at the core of sin, continually causing issues of godship in our relationship with God. Remember, there is room for only one God on the throne of your life—and it is not you.
  5. Constant attention to sin is required to run our race strong and finish well. Over and again the Bible calls us to stay alert, to be on guard, and to be ever watchful for the Enemy’s work in our life. Satan never gives up: we can serve him up a devastating defeat by our obedience to God one day, and he will be right back at us the next, tempting us to stray from God.

The story of Gideon in Judges 6-8 is a classic reminder that it is not just a strong start that counts, it is finishing well that is the essential thing in our journey with God. May it be said of us, “they started strong and finished well.”

Going Deeper: Check your heart. Are you fully devoted to God in every area of your life? If not, come to God in repentance. If you are, stay alert to the Enemy today. He is making plans to trip you up. So keep your eye on Jesus and you will be just fine.

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Constant Companionship

The Promise of the Holy Spirit is Still Available Today

SYNOPSIS: What is the key to God’s peace in you life, even in the midst of these tumultuous times? The constant companionship of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised this Divine Advocate would come alongside you to help, comfort, teach and guide you in your spiritual journey. When you have that kind of relationship with the Holy Spirit, you can’t help but have peace. God the Father wants you to have an intimate, vital, day-to-day companionship with the Holy Spirit. That is his gift and his promise to you. John the Baptist prophesied that Jesus would baptize you with the promised Holy Spirit. Jesus affirmed that prophetic promise throughout his teaching.  He promised that the Holy Spirit would not only be with you but in you as the Father’s gift. Are you enjoying that kind of constant companionship with God the Holy Spirit? If not, the promised gift is still on the table, and all you have to do is receive the gift.

Project 52—Memorize:
John 14:26

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

According to pollster George Barna, a recent survey indicated that 61% of protestant Christians in America hold the view that the Holy Spirit is NOT a person or living entity, but only a symbol of God’s presence

Of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son and Spirit—the third Person of the Triune God, the Holy Spirit, is more misunderstood than the Father and the Son. That is why there is so much ignorance and fear and neglect on the one hand, and abuse on the other.

So to better understand and fully appreciate Jesus’ promise of the Divine Advocate to come alongside you to help, comfort, teach and guide you in your spiritual journey, let’s start with this essential truth: The Holy Spirit is a person, not an impersonal, symbolic “it”!

Jesus said as much in John 14:16, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever…”  The background for that statement was the Lord’s devastating announcement that he was going away and would leave his disciples’ physical presence. And they were understandably alarmed. But Jesus told them not to be alarmed.

Why would they not need to be afraid? Because another Comforter would be coming. The Greek word for comforter is parakleton. In John 14:26, the same Greek word translated “advocate” is used. Likewise, and interestingly, in 1 John 2:1 (NASB) that word, parakleton is used of Jesus:

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

The word means “one called along-side” for protection or counsel. Jesus is one who stands alongside you!

Now Jesus promised his disciples, and by extension, you and me, that the Holy Spirit would take his place in our lives as that parakleton to not only be alongside us, as Jesus was, but to be “in us” continually as our protector, counselor, guide, comfort, and peace. Jesus said the Father would give us “another paraketon”. The word “another” means another of the same kind rather than another of a different kind. Jesus was one advocate—and what an advocate he was. The Holy Spirit was another advocate, another of the same kind—and what an advocate he is.

God the Father wants you to have an intimate, vital, day-to-day companionship with the Holy Spirit. That is his gift and his promise to you. John the Baptist prophesied that Jesus would baptize you with the promised Holy Spirit. (Matthew 3:11) Jesus affirmed that prophetic promise throughout his teaching.  He promised that the Holy Spirit would not only be with you but in you as the Father’s gift. (John 14:17)

Are you enjoying that kind of constant companionship with God the Holy Spirit? If not, the promised gift is still on the table!

“Some souls think that the Holy Spirit is very far away, far, far, up above. Actually he is, we might say, the divine Person who is most closely present to the creature. He accompanies him everywhere. He penetrates him with himself. He calls him, he protects him. He makes of him his living temple. He defends him. He helps him. He guards him from all his enemies. He is closer to him than his own soul. All the good a soul accomplishes, it carries out under his inspiration, in his light, by his grace and his help.” ~Concepcion Cabrera de Armida

Reflect and Apply:  How do you enter into a constant companionship with the Holy Spirit? Simply ask!  Jesus said in Luke 11:13 (Message), “If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing—you’re at least decent to your own children. And don’t you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?”  

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Horrible Odds, Holy Opportunities

Why God Allows The Decks To Be Stacked Against You

SYNOPSIS: Faith is not looking at the unmovable mountain in our way, it is looking to the Mountain Mover on our side. Faith is putting our full confidence in the things we hope for and being certain of things we can’t see (Hebrews 11:1-2). Faith is ruthless trust in the care and competence of our Heavenly Father. Faith is unshakeable hope that God loves us and will work everything out for our good and his glory. Faith means Forsaking All, I Trust Him. That is why God allows us to be in situations where the genuineness of our faith can be proven. So if you’re up against horrible odds right now, not to worry, the development of your faith is on the edge of a holy opportunity.

The Journey // Focus: Judges 7:2-4,7

The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength. Therefore, tell the people, ‘Whoever is timid or afraid may leave this mountain and go home.’” So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight. But the Lord told Gideon, “There are still too many! Bring them down to the spring, and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not” The Lord told Gideon, “With these 300 men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home.”

We want the odds to be in our favor. To mix metaphors, when push comes to shove, we are certainly not opposed to the decks being stacked in our favor. That is just human nature—fallen nature, that is. But that is not the way of God, which means that is not the way of faith.

The thing is, we are created to glorify our Creator, to worship him and fully enjoy him forever. Life is not about us, it is all about him, and how we can so live as to bring him maximum fame through our daily lives—in our everyday, walking around, eating, sleeping, talking, going about our business lives. Our job is to make God famous. And in doing that, we experience the deepest, longest lasting satisfaction possible during the few decades we have been allotted in this one and only life.

But that means we have to walk the way of faith. Faith is putting our full confidence in the things we hope for; it means being certain of things we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1-2) Faith is ruthless trust in the care and competence of our Heavenly Father. Faith is unshakeable hope that God loves us and will work everything out for our good and his glory. Faith is not looking at the unmovable mountain in our way, it is looking to the Mountain Mover on our side. Faith is Forsaking All, I Trust Him. That is why God allows us to be in situations where the genuineness of our faith can be proven.

You see, it doesn’t take much faith if we don’t really need God to step in. If there is not the possibility, at least on the human, visible level, that we can crash and burn if God doesn’t show up, then we are most likely not stepping out far enough where we have reached the rare air of risky faith. If we can do it without God, most likely we will take the credit for our success.

Remember, however, we were created to glorify him in everything we do. Remember that our one assignment is to make God famous. Remember that he designed us to be most satisfied in him when he is most glorified in us. That is precisely why he allows the decks to be stacked against us. It is then that he can supply us with supernatural power and all kinds of divine aid to rout our toughest enemies, overcome our most overwhelming odds, and win our most stunning victories.

That is precisely why God told Gideon to pare his fighting force down from thousands to just 300—against a Midianite army that was far superior in numbers, experience and fighting talent. In God’s own words, “If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.” God doesn’t share his glory—and that is a good thing. He allows us to share in his glory, but that comes only by deflecting all the glory that we might receive in our effort back to him. When we do that, his glory is reflected onto us in a way that we could never produce on own.

Now like me, you may not be totally comfortable with this whole business of the decked stack against you. But the record of scripture, the testimony of the faithful, and from my own experience, that is the way of faith. And frankly, I am glad it is. So get used to it!

So if you’ve got horrible odds, not to worry, you are on the edge of a holy opportunity.

Going Deeper: Are you up against some horrible odds? Good! Began to thank God for your situation. You are on the verge of something grand!