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Doers of the Word

Doers of the Word

Judges 6:25 & 27

That night the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it. …” So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.

Skye, my five-year-old daughter, is preparing for a ballet performance for her homeschool co-op, and, last night, while I tucked her into bed, she said to me, “Daddy, I’m so excited to do my performance at family night—but I’m a little scared, too.” What a precious admission of our human condition. “It’s okay to be afraid, Skye,” I replied. “Really?”, she questioned. “Yes, really! In fact, did you know that daddy is leading music this week in front of a group of college students and I’m a little afraid, too? And did you know that every Sunday when Poppa gets up in front of all those people to preach, he still feels a little scared?” I had her full attention at this point, so I quickly moved to the moral: “We don’t have to listen to our fear. We can tell our feelings ‘no’ and still do the really important thing God wants us to do even if we’re a little afraid.”

Whatever heights Gideon may go on to reach from here, whatever giants he may soon defeat with his own hands, whatever glory he may achieve in the eyes of his brothers, right now, at this early stage, he possesses none of the grit of Joshua or the earnest of Caleb or the gusto of Moses. In fact, he doesn’t seem all that impressive at all. He’s so young and cautious and fearful of what others will think, so much so that it begs the question of how God can call him a man of valor at all. Ah, but look what Gideon does. Despite his fearfulness and hesitancy and desire to evade confrontation, he steps onto the stage, obeys the LORD, and tears down that monument to Baal stone by stone and board by board.

Friend, remember: it’s what you do that makes you valiant in God’s eyes—not how you feel.

 

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