The Placerville Church of Christ Weblog

LIMITING MY OPTIONS

God had given an incredibly difficult job to Gideon. He was to deliver his fellow Israelites from Midianite oppression. This was no small task, given the numbers of those opposing him. Initially, Gideon protested that he couldn’t do it. But when God promised to help him win the battle, Gideon began to call his army together. Thirty-two thousand warriors are gathered to prepare for battle. Even that number had to seem like nothing in comparison to the innumerable horde they were facing. But they forged ahead with their planning anyway.

But then God did the unthinkable. Citing a concern that the Israelites would boast in their own power after the victory, He had Gideon send over two-thirds of the recruits home! If Gideon had any doubts about facing the Midianites with only 32,000 men, imagine what was going through his mind knowing that he was down to 10,000. But God wasn’t done yet. The next test trimmed the group of 10,000 down to a comparatively tiny handful of only 300 fighting men. Whose side is God on anyway? Is this His way of helping?

I don’t know how it is for you, but when God calls upon me to do something, my thoughts usually focus on counting my resources. Do I have the abilities and the assets to meet the need? How can I arrange those abilities and assets to best address the problem? But when I consider that approach, I realize that I am focusing on me instead of focusing on God. Like Gideon, maybe it would be better for me if God would limit my options instead of increasing them. Instead of me praying to God for more of this or that, perhaps it would be better to pray that God would arrange circumstances so that I would trust Him more than I trust in myself.

Do I really have faith if I only respond to God when I think I can handle it? I show real trust by facing life’s struggles when I know I can’t do it on my own.

God loves you!

-Mike

“So the LORD gave Israel all the land which He had sworn
to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the LORD gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had
sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before
them; the LORD gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of
the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel
failed; all came to pass” (Joshua 21:43-45).

Have you ever been the victim of a broken promise? Or have
you ever been the promise-breaker? If you have lived for any length
of time at all, you can answer “yes” to at least one, and probably
both, of those questions. We live in a world that is littered with the
debris of promises that were not kept. It’s so commonplace that we
have almost come to expect it. The current political climate is a case
in point. Candidates of every political stripe make extravagant
promises to get elected and then seldom keep those promises. And,
worse yet, we accept such antics as business as usual. We even joke
about it: “Do you know how to tell if a politician is lying? Look to
see if his lips are moving.” Now, are all politicians liars and
intentionally deceptive? Of course not. But it happens often enough
to make us cynical to the point of joking about such important
matters. How sad!

Perhaps it is our experiences in this world that make it
difficult to trust in God’s promises. We find it hard to believe when
we read: “Not one of the good promises which the LORD had made
to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.” We instinctively
begin to look for loopholes. We prepare ourselves for the eventually
let-down. But it doesn’t come! God is completely faithful to every
promise He makes! “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will
bring it to pass” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
God loves you! Mike

LIKE A VAPOR



The pictures of the devastation experienced by the nation of
Japan recently as the result of earthquakes and tsunamis are
terrifying. Walls of water, mud, and debris raced across the
landscape, destroying everything in their path. Entire houses, cars,
and boats floating along like toys in a bathtub. I couldn’t help but
think that people were losing their lives as I watched. There must
have been families in some of those houses. There must have been
workers in some of those buildings and fields. There must have
been some passengers in some of those cars and boats. Some had
time to escape but others didn’t. But my guess is that probably
everyone got up that morning and thought that the coming day would
be just like any other day. Little did they know that the coming day
would be unlike any other day they had ever experienced.



I do the same thing. My waking thoughts are never filled with
visions of a coming catastrophic event. I can’t remember ever
starting a day with serious doubts as to whether I would live through
it. Usually, I’m thinking about what I am going to do and where I
need to be (James 4:13). I naively move from moment to moment as
if they were owed to me. But they are not. Maybe next time, it will
be me swallowed up by water and mud. Perhaps my life will be cut
short by a natural (or unnatural) disaster. Maybe the drunk driver
will hit my car or maybe it will be my heart that skips one too many
beats. Who knows???



I realize the tone of this piece is a bit dark, but from time to
time I need a heavy dose of reality. What happened in Japan is one
of those reality checks. It re-emphasized for me that life can be a
fragile and fleeting thing (James 4:14). And I am reminded that,
while I can’t control the future, I can be ready for whatever the future
brings. Jesus Christ is disaster insurance!



God loves you! Mike

 DEALING WITH THE CONSEQUENCES