Monday, July 21, 2014

Pastor's Pondering, July 21, 2014

Let’s Fight Back

In the Huffington Post, Elizabeth Warren, the junior senator from Massachusetts recently suggested that we should not be passive about the problems that we face. She proclaimed, “So the way I see this is we can whine about it, we can whimper about it or we can fight back. I'm fighting back!" 

In the Bible, when Midianites were impoverishing the Israelites, they were forced to harvest their meager harvests in secret (Judges 6). They desperately cried out to the Lord and the angel of the Lord spoke to Gideon and said, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour (Judges 6:12).” After initial hesitation and testing God, something amazing happened. The Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon (Judges 6:34) and he went on to defeat a much greater army than he had (Judges 7). 

Sometimes we will allow our circumstances to determine our destiny.  In these trying times, now is not the time to lie down and let the enemies of depression, poverty, fear, racism, hatred, and unbelief run roughshod over us.  We are mighty warriors for God! With God’s strength, we can crush an army; 
with God we can scale any wall (2 Samuel 22:30).  We will fight back because we have the Spirit of the Lord.  Now let us fight back against evil in the strength of God.

Please comment below and share when you fought back against God’s enemies and you won through God’s strength. You can encourage others to do the same.

Judges 6:1, 6, 11, 12, 34, 39, 40
New International Version (NIV)
The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.
Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.
11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 
12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
34 
Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.
39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.”
40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

Judges 7:1, 2, 7, 22
New International Version (NIV)
1 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.
The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’
The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”
22 When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath

2 Samuel 22:30
New Living Translation (NLT)
30 In your strength I can crush an army; 
with my God I can scale any wall.


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