Wow! Nine notifications on my Facebook page! With anxious fingers I tapped the little bell at the bottom of the page. Reading every one as if my life depended on it, but in a few cyber minutes, I found myself woefully disappointed in the content, though it boasted great rewards. Same ole, same ole I decided! Why had I put my trust in this weak substitute when so often it lacks what I search for….. Answers? Peace? Wisdom? Truth? But how can you tell the difference between truth and lies? I should have gone first to the real truth. The Word of God! His "notifications" are eternal and true.
I was drawn this morning to the story of Gideon found in the book of Numbers. I liked what the angel of the LORD said to Gideon. “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior, and I was equally amused by Gideon’s reply, “Pardon me!”
By this time in the account, the Israelites, including Gideon, were hiding from the Midianites who had been severely oppressing them, actually systematically starving them by destroying their crops. This tribe of fickle people were complaining that God had not performed miracles on their behalf as he had at the Red Sea. God reminded them that they had left HIM to worship other gods and had stopped listening to him. I can see myself in these hard-headed people, can you? I want God to perform miracles when I need them, REALY BAD, but depend on the world to meet my needs until it can’t. In the quietness of the morning, God greets me and calls me to be a mighty warrior in his army and I say with Gideon, “Pardon me”. “You have the wrong girl for this great battle.” I remind the LORD of all creations, including me, that I am the least of all people. “Who am I to bring Jesus to the broken? Who am I to remind his children that to find peace they must come to him who gives perfect peace? Could it be possible that instead of hiding behind my insecurities, God wants me to lead this shattered world to the eternal Rock, bring the fearful to meet the One who gives a steadfast mind if we trust in him? May I build an altar to the LORD in my heart and call it “The LORD of Peace”. Help me Father God go forward as your Mighty Warrior reminding people that you are still a miracle-working God!
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself is the Rock eternal.
Isaiah 26:3-4 NIV
So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace.
Judges 6:24 NIV
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