day 5: brave in my weakness

October 05, 2016

day 5: brave in my weakness

I don't know if you noticed on my introduced post that I was originally planning to write about Ruth next, but I am just not feeling it right now - and Gideon is pretty much exactly where my heart is at... so Ruth will make it on here soon, but for today i want to share about finding my brave in weakness and finding a friend in the story of Gideon.

I thought that writing a Bible Study on being brave would or maybe even should feel a lot differently than it has. I have kept on getting hung up on the idea that someone who is really brave should be writing this study, not someone who feels full of fear. I guess maybe I thought I should be writing from a place of certainty and security instead of from this place of vulnerability. But today God reminded me that being vulnerable is brave and that it is when I am weak that He is strong and He reminded me that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, even with all of the things that are weighing me down and tempting me to freak out.

So for the next couple of days we are going to sit with Gideon and watch what God does through this mighty man of God who felt fearful and weak, just like me.

Read: Judges 6-8

Stop right there - have you ever felt this? Have you ever asked God "Why has this happened?!!" I bet you have, I know I have many many many times.

Have you ever doubted God's presence and goodness on your life?

I think at some point or another we all have. This is, I think, a huge root of fear in our hearts. If we are not settled in our soul that God is with us, that He is for us and that He is good, then we have a massive crack in our armor that our enemy will try to exploit and we will find it harder to choose brave and easier to live in fear.

Gideon struggles with this multiple times. How would you state Gideon's struggle to believe God?

We constantly have to battle against the lie from the Garden of Eden "did God really say that?" We constantly have to battle against doubt in God and doubt in our ability to rightly understand God's will for us. We ask did you really ask me to do this?! Often we are afraid of failing.

“And Gideon said to him, "Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?..." And the Lord turned to him and said, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?"”
Judges 6:13 -14 ESV

I have been thinking a lot about this lately. Gideon says "if the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened?" And the Lord says "Go - I'm sending you to do something about it." God doesn't stop right here and give Gideon a history lesson, He doesn't remind him of th covenant, He simply says "Go." Sometimes I experience similar moments in my walk with God - I cry out "why is this happening?!! Where are you?" And God simply says "it's time to go now." He calls me up out of my hiding and out onto the battle fields of faith, with no answers, only the promise of His presence.

What does God say about His presence & goodness in our lives?

Joshua 1:5, Psalm 9:9, 17:6-8, 18:1-3, 25:10, 27:13-14, 31:21-22, 36:5-10, 37:39, 84:11& 7, 91(esp 15), 94:18, 95:7, 100:5, 103(esp 4&17), 107:30&35, 108:4 118:1-6, 138:6, Proverbs 18:10 Isaiah 40:11, 29-31, 42:10, 51:12-16, 54:10*, Lamentations 3:19-24 (esp 22), Micah 7:7-9, Matthew 6:25-34, Romans 16:25, Philipians 4:19 Hebrews 12:1-3, 2Peter 1:3-4

Think back to a moment when you couldn't feel God but you were feeling all the feelings about your circumstances. Looking back do you see how God was with you? Do you see how He worked good even through those difficult circumstances? Do you have a circumstance in your life right now where you have been asking God "why?!" But he is not answering?

Pick one of the verses above, rewrite it in your own words and personalize it by inserting your name in the verse. If there is something specific you are struggling with write that struggle into the verse, remind your soul that even when you feel fearful and can't feel God's presence He will never abandon you, forsake you, leave you or fail you.