1/7/2010 8:39 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: The first sifting
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Judges 7:1-3
Message of the verses: “1 ¶
Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him,
rose early and camped beside the spring of Harod; and the camp of Midian was on
the north side of them by the hill of Moreh in the valley. 2 The LORD said to Gideon, "The people who
are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would
become boastful, saying, ‘My
own power has delivered me.’ 3
"Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying,
‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount
Gilead.’" So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained.”
Today
begins the fifth chapter in “Be Available,” which is Warren Wiersbe’s
commentary on Judges, and it also begins the seventh chapter of Judges. Dr. Wiersbe entitles this chapter “Faith Is
The Victory.” He writes “The familiar and exciting account of Gideon’s
wonderful victory over the Midianites is really a story of faith in action, and
it reveals to us three important principles about faith. If we’re to be overcomers, and not be
overcome, we need to understand and apply these principles.”
Dr. Wiersbe
has some wonderful quotes about faith in this section, and so I would like to
add them to this SD. “J. G. Stipe said
that faith is like a toothbrush:
Everybody should have one and use it regularly, but it isn’t safe to use
somebody else’s.” “My friend, Dr. J.
Vernon McGee, used to raise the question, ‘Why didn’t Gideon go home? After all, he was afraid.’ Courage isn’t necessarily the absence of
fear; it’s the overcoming of fear by transforming it into power. I once asked a well-known Christian collegiate
star quarterback how he was able to run the ball so far down the field and his
reply was, ‘I was scared, just plain scared; so I kept moving!’ There is a fear that paralyzes and a fear
that energizes, and Gideon’s fear was the latter kind.”
God told
Gideon that he could send all those soldiers who were afraid that they could go
home, and of the 32,000 there were 22,000 who went home, which left him just
10,000 men who stayed to fight the battle, but God was not done yet, for in
verse two the reason is given, and that is that if there were too many soldiers
they would boast that it was through there power that won the battle, and God
does not share His glory with anyone.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Faith is something that has been on the front
burner of my life for the last couple of days, and so I must believe that God
is trying to teach me something about faith.
Last night I was asked to teach in the Wednesday evening prayer meeting
because our teacher’s mother seems to be on her death bed, and I was given this
task about two hours or so before it was time to have the meeting, and I still
had to finish cleaning the church building.
It took faith to trust the Lord to be able to do this on such a short
notice, and to top it off the message was on the 11th chapter of
Hebrews, which is all about faith.
The quote
above about the toothbrush is something that makes a lot of sense to me, and
something that I have not though about before.
I must have my own individual faith in the Lord to accomplish the things
that He desires to accomplish in my life for His glory.
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
- I want to trust the Lord to accomplish the things that He desires for our church, and if my meeting with Greg will help out, which by faith, I believe it will, and then the glory belongs to the Lord.
1/7/2010 9:20 AM
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