FEARFUL, INSECURE, AND FLAWED

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Chapter 5 closes with the "the land was undisturbed for forty years".  Chapter 6 opens with "..the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years."  The cycle continues!  Midian, (relatives of theirs by Abraham who married Keturah after the death of Sarah) like hordes of locusts, would come into Israel with their livestock, tents, and camels  at harvest time and totally decimate the land and the produce.  The marauders came in such numbers that Israel would hide in the caves in the mountains for protection.  

An angel of the God (another theophany, preincarnate Jesus) comes to Gideon who is threshing his wheat in a wine press.  Gideon is on constant watch for the furtive marauders who might catch him and take his wheat. Usually the wheat is threshed on a high area to catch the winds to separate the wheat from the chaff, and the wine press is in a low place with a huge vat for pressing grapes.  He speaks to Gideon and I just imagine the shock of his words, "The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior".  Can you see Gideon looking around to see whom the angel of God is addressing?  Gideon questions, how God could use him since he is the youngest child of a "least" family of the tribe of Manasseh.  He even expresses that the Lord had abandoned them and given them into Midian's hand.  Of course he does not mention the fact that his family along with many others of the Israelites have forsaken God to worship Baal and Asherah, gods of the Canaanites.  Could that be why he feels as if God has abandoned them?  The angel of the Lord does not get hung up and argue with Gideon's words.  He gives him the command, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the land of Midian.  Have I not sent you?"   

I don't know about you, but oh, how I have identified with Gideon's perception of himself:  fearful, insecure, inferior, and flawed for sure.  Isn't it interesting how God sees Gideon as a valiant warrior?  Far too often, we settle into the lies: inferior to, less than, fears of, I can't, and God can't use the likes of me! As Christ followers, we have become new creatures in Christ Jesus. The mindset of inferiority, insecurity, and fears need to be addressed. This is MY assignment!  This old default mindset (before salvation) has become a stronghold (thoughts, opinions, rationale, arguments or unhealthy imaginations) and the stronghold MUST be addressed.  We do not have to live with that faulty mindset, the lies.   2 Corinthians 10:5-6 reminds us that we have weapons, not of flesh, but are "divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses/strongholds"  "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."  In my case, I have lived too long with those lies, and so I must daily address the mindset of lies.   The abundant life which Christ died to give us cannot thrive in the mire of lies.  As the story of Gideon moves on, we will see him be the valiant warrior.  Join me in addressing "our" faulty mindset built on lies!  Am I willing to live in the Truth of what says about me?  #IHAVETHREESONS

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