Mighty WARRIOR or Mighty WORRIER?
Our first English chapel's (Weds. 3 pm) speaker was Pastor Heinz Schoenhoff who read from Judges 6 about God calling Gideon as a "judge" or deliver of Israel.
"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. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
Here Gideon was in what must have been a very low point in his life (secretly threshing wheat hiding from his enemies) and God calls him "Mighty warrior"?! God does not condemn but sees us for what we could become in His hands!
"But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, "Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?" But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."
There were many great insights offered but the greatest message God spoke to my heart was the message you see in the subject title: "Mighty warrior or worrier".
God has SAVED ME from my sins, filled me with His Holy Spirit and promised to be WITH ME (Immaneul-"God with us" Matt. 1:23), and even to be with me TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (Matthew 28:20)...BUT YET....I tend to cry out in my small, temporary problems, worries and fears, "If the LORD is with me," I say, "why bla, bla, bla and such and such." (I'm sure you can ask your own question filling in your own "bla, bla, bla and such and such"....)
Heavenly Father, may we Christians live in faith, knowing that You ARE with us and You seek our utmost eternal good despite how things may look from a human perspective. Lord, give us boldness, power and courage to proclaim your truth to all mankind and to recognize that we who belong to You ARE mighty warriors in a spiritual battle and that YOU have already won the victory. If you are for us, who can be against us?! Help us not to worry but when and if we do worry, may we cast all our anxieties at the cross of Christ trusting that all things will work out for your glory. In Jesus name we trust and pray, Amen.
"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. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
Here Gideon was in what must have been a very low point in his life (secretly threshing wheat hiding from his enemies) and God calls him "Mighty warrior"?! God does not condemn but sees us for what we could become in His hands!
"But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, "Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?" But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."
There were many great insights offered but the greatest message God spoke to my heart was the message you see in the subject title: "Mighty warrior or worrier".
God has SAVED ME from my sins, filled me with His Holy Spirit and promised to be WITH ME (Immaneul-"God with us" Matt. 1:23), and even to be with me TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (Matthew 28:20)...BUT YET....I tend to cry out in my small, temporary problems, worries and fears, "If the LORD is with me," I say, "why bla, bla, bla and such and such." (I'm sure you can ask your own question filling in your own "bla, bla, bla and such and such"....)
Heavenly Father, may we Christians live in faith, knowing that You ARE with us and You seek our utmost eternal good despite how things may look from a human perspective. Lord, give us boldness, power and courage to proclaim your truth to all mankind and to recognize that we who belong to You ARE mighty warriors in a spiritual battle and that YOU have already won the victory. If you are for us, who can be against us?! Help us not to worry but when and if we do worry, may we cast all our anxieties at the cross of Christ trusting that all things will work out for your glory. In Jesus name we trust and pray, Amen.