Somewhere Between Fear and Domination
We all find ourselves on a journey. If you believe in Jesus Christ, then there are only two possible destinations, heaven or hell. If it is that easy, then why does life seem so difficult at times to navigate?
I love the way 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 MSG describes it, “So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.”
One version says to Fix Your Gaze on the Unseen!
This eye command is also found in Proverbs 4:23-27 MSG. “Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.”
I have written numerous post about how many times the Bible tells us to not fear, yet the world pounds us daily with wave after wave of every form of fear imaginable.
So how do we dominate? How do we, as followers of Jesus Christ, not only obey what He ask us to do, but do so in a fashion that catches God’s gaze!
This is going to sound ludicrous, but in good ole American sports slang, this is my version of how you dominate the game we call life.
Don’t suck, avoid a horrible stretch, and never lose. Yea, I just said that. Let’s look at three of God’s finest to validate my opinion.
First, don’t suck. Gideon got off to a rough start, hiding in a wine press not pounding anybody, not even grapes. He was threshing wheat? Come on Gideon. Thank goodness God sees more in us than we do. God calls Gideon a mighty warrior and tells him to get in the game.
Gideon is able to rally up a sizable army of 32,000 men. That is impressive unless you are going up against an army of 135,000 Midianites. God has never been much for good odds. He prefers impossible. So he tells the fearful to get lost leaving Gideon with 10,000. He then thins out those that lack the ability to focus on details, bringing the total of Gideon’s army of 300 fearless, focused, and locked in gazing warriors. I love the sound of that perception!
Gideon shares with his boys God’s crazy plan of a trumpet and light show. What I didn’t follow as a kid, was the rest of the story. Gideon and his 300 warriors war battle was not over after breaking the jars and blowing the trumpets! I do love how God turned the tables and used fear and panic to help take out the enemy. God’s plan worked miraculously well killing 120,000, which left Gideon and his 300 warriors chasing 15,000 Midianites and their Kings, Zebah and Zalmunna.
Gideon went on the road along the edge of the desert, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the army by surprise. The two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, ran away, but he pursued them and captured them, and caused their whole army to panic.
Gideon captured a young man from Sukkoth and questioned him. The young man wrote down for Gideon the names of the seventy-seven leading men of Sukkoth. Then Gideon went to the men of Sukkoth and said, “Remember when you refused to help me? You said that you couldn’t give any food to my exhausted army because I hadn’t captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet. Well, here they are!”
That day sucked for the men of Sukkoth. Moral of the story. Help God’s people along your journey!
Second, avoid a horrible stretch. Let’s check out Moses and the Israelites to illustrate this one. Just an eleven day journey from the promised land, God makes a covenant with Moses on Mount Horeb, but while Moses is up on the mountain, the people of Israel have a horrible stretch convincing Aaron to build a golden calf to worship from the gold God had blessed them with when leaving Egypt. Not only that, but when the twelve spies came back from the promised land, the Israelites once again had a horrible stretch choosing to go with the ten fearful spies over Joshua and Caleb.
The result. It took 40 years or 14,600 days to make an 11 day journey to the promised land. Only Joshua and Caleb would ever finish this journey.
Moral to the story, Avoid Mount Horeb and horrible stretches in life!
Thirdly, just don’t lose! Nobody knows how to avoid losing better than Jacob. Jacob was not much better than Gideon. His name even means swindler. He lived up to his name tricking his father and stealing his brother Esau’s birthright.
Fearful of what Esau was going to do to him, Jacob leaves town and heads to his uncle Laban’s house. A 500 mile journey, Jacob decides to stop at a place called Luz to sleep. At that point, Jacob was a loser, but to his credit, his losing stopped at Luz!
He puts his head on a rock and God comes to him in a dream. When Jacob woke up, he was amazed at the things God had said. He turned the stone that was under his head up on its side to be a pillar. He renamed the place Bethel, which means “house of God.” Jacob goes from loser to the House of God in one day!
If you follow the rest of the story, Jacob fought hard to never be a loser. He obeyed God’s instructions and God showed Jacob favor. He was even willing to wrestle an angel all night long in order to win God’s favor!
As a result, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, “The one who strives with God”. In one day Jacob goes from swindler to the one who strives with God!
Three ways to dominate your journey: Don’t Sukkoth, avoid Mount Horeb, and no more Luzing. Focus your gaze on the unseen promises of Gods and watch what He will do in return!
Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash