Last week, my daughter and I were discussing idioms. She told me that she knew what they were. I asked for an example. She replied by stating “wake up and smell the coffee.” I did not realize the irony and humor of her statement with my assessment of what she knew until this very moment. I see the connection to what I want to talk about today. Idioms are used to express how we feel or our opinion about our condition.

There are many times in our lives when the odds are stacked against us. Someone has stacked the cards against me. Do you really think that someone has stacked the deck? Isn't it just fate? More importantly, people some times believe that God himself has stacked the deck against them. This is seen in verse 13 below. I know many people ask me that. I hope by today’s reading you can make the correct conclusion. Right now, you may be facing insurmountable circumstances relationally, financially, vocationally, physically, spiritually and in many other ways, but God is able (Eph 3:20). Whether we have created a situation by our own disobedience or not, we should seek the Lord God for help, then feel confident rather than afraid. I have faced that very situation this week and in recent months – in fact all my life. I admit that I have not always responded by calling on the Lord God initially, but after God’s faithful redirection for me, I did.

This was also true for Gideon when it appeared that he could not fulfill the call God had for him (Judges 6). The pre-incarnate Christ appeared to Gideon and told him who he was (mighty warrior) and that He was with him, but Gideon chose not to believe the creator but the created -his own opinion. Gideon chose not to believe the promise but the problem. Gideon talked about how his family pedigree could not afford him that ability; he stated that he was the weakest in his clan. It’s not about who we are but about who God is and what God has decreed. God normally takes the weakest to prove the point that He is able even with the weakest. God wants to glorify himself and cause us to rely and depend on him.

11 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. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
13 "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."
14 The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"
15 "But Lord , [a] " Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
16 The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

The same that happened to Gideon has happened to you and me. God, through His Word, His Spirit, and His people, have told us who were are and that He is with us. He has proclaimed things about us (royal priesthood, holy nation, people belonging to God, co-heirs with Christ, more than conquerors) but we do not believe what God says. Instead, we believe what we think or what some other person has told us. God keeps telling me to believe. He keeps telling you to believe. We do not believe, so God allows us to experience things to show us. Just like Gideon. Just like Elijah from the devotion below. Our lives, like the greatest from the Word of God, are cycles of trusting God and not trusting God. God calls our lack of trusting Him evil. It is evil because we assign attributes to God’s character when we don’t trust Him. When we do not trust Him, we are saying that God is not faithful, credible or true. He does not keep His word. When that happens, he can’t (no will not) help us. God will make sure that He receives the honor due to him. Usually, we get engulfed by our circumstance that we “cry out” then God comes to our aid. This is how Judges 6 starts out. The people had just finished 40 years of peace in the land, so they forgot God as we normally do when things are going really well for us. Forgetting God is depriving Him of the rightful place He has in our lives – 1st! For those who surrendered to Christ as Lord and Savior, God says that we should honor him other wise He will humble us now. For those who have not surrendered to him as Lord and Savior, He says that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. Let’s get it right now.

Realize that we should “… fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Hebrews 12:2

It would great if you took 30 minutes and read Judges 6 – 8 and I Kings 18-19. You will see the ebb and flow of us trusting not trusting despite powerful and miraculous things that God does in our lives. Oh praise God for his faithfulness and commitment to me. I should have mastered all of this by now, but I have not.

Be blessed.

Saturday, March 6, 2010
Read: 1 Kings 18:16-40
O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God. - 1 Kings 18:37
TODAY IN THE WORDIf you’ve ever lived in a home with a teenager, you’ve probably experienced sarcasm. Requests to do chores are met with, “Sure, Mom, I’d LOVE to take out the trash [huff, huff, eye roll].” When queried whether homework has been completed, the little darling says, “Of COURSE, Dad, I’m not STUPID!”
Scripture contains descriptions of ungodly people using sarcasm, but you might be surprised to find accounts of sarcasm from saints like Paul and Elijah and even God Himself. For the next few days we’ll explore occasions when sarcasm is used to make a redemptive point.
Today’s passage opens with Ahab’s inverted view of reality. He addressed the prophet Elijah as the “troubler of Israel,” yet from the litany of sins committed and endorsed by Ahab, he himself was the source of much of Israel’s misery (vv. 17-18). He not only tolerated the worship of false gods in Israel, but he also actively promoted the cult of Baal and supported its prophets (see 1 Kings 16:29-33).
Elijah confronted the people of Israel with the choice between serving God and Baal (v. 21). Yet the people refused to choose the Lord, so Elijah prepared a dramatic demonstration of the difference. He stacked the deck in favor of Baal: Baal had 450 prophets; God had one. Baal had a dry altar; God had an altar that was completely drenched with water.
Even with these advantages, the prophets of Baal failed to produce fire. Elijah taunted them: “Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened” (v. 27). This egged the prophets of Baal to further exertion, and it contrasted Baal with the Lord who never sleeps and who is always present with His people (v. 36; see Ps. 121:4).
There was no answer from Baal, but there were consequences from Jehovah (v. 40). Ultimately, though, Elijah’s sarcasm was intended to provoke the people of Israel to repentance by revealing the ridiculousness of Baal worship. His sarcasm challenged evil in order to turn the people back to reality.

TODAY ALONG THE WAYElijah’s sarcasm toward the prophets of Baal contrasts with his sober prayer to the Lord in verses 36 and 37. Elijah was not flippant when it came to the worship of God. Is your own worship characterized by ridiculous posturing and exertions to no effect? Or do you come before the Lord humbly and prayerfully, expecting Him to work in accord with His Word and character? The pretension and presumptuousness of sin should be scorned, but the worship of our holy God demands our offering of praise.