Actual strength that changes life

August 23, 2024

Maria God's Peace, Holy Spirit, Judges 7, Psalm 23, Spiritual Warfare , , , , 2 Comments

Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul (NIV)……He revives my life (ISV)…He renews my strength (NLT)….He refreshes my soul (LSV)

I was on the elliptical cardio machine at Orange Theory Fitness this morning.  I never ‘feel’ energetic when I hop on.  But after 5-6 minutes, strength seems to arrive.  I don’t actually feel it, but I notice that I can go faster and steeper than when I started.  This has gotten me thinking about the strength that God infuses into our souls.

Last week, when I felt attacked by obsessive, unrelenting thoughts for a good 24 hours, it didn’t occur to me that spiritual forces of darkness were behind this.  But when Mike prayed for me, immediately followed by my reading pastor Scotty Smith’s words about spiritual warfare, the attack melted away.

That quick insight or clarity, something I already knew but Satan had blinded for a spell, changed my mood entirely.

Just as going to the gym and eating good quality protein provide energy and strength, God’s truth sources our power. But it’s not something we feel come into us or reside inside of us. In the spiritual realm, the Holy Spirit enables us to live out of a different perspective, God’s knowledge of reality.

This week I’m reading through Judges.  In chapter 7, Gideon has been prompted to free his people from the Midianites.  Knowing that this young man doesn’t FEEL capable, God goes out of his way to meet Gideon in his fear and weakness:

That night the LORD said to Gideon, “Get up and go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand. But, if you are afraid to do so, then go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Then your hands will be strengthened to attack the camp.” So, he went with Purah his servant to the outposts where armed men were guarding the camp. Judges 7:10-11 Berean Standard Bible

What made a difference to Gideon? An unimaginable conversation, a bit of new information transformed the outlook of this ‘least of the least’.  Now he was mentally and emotionally prepared to trust God and follow his plan, however strange it sounded.

What our mind believes affects our strength.  And God’s word delivered by his Spirit is transformative. 

Just before his departure heavenward the resurrected Jesus told his followers: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8 NLT

We all know about Peter’s courage and the effect of his bold preaching after the Spirit visited them. I think Peter and the rest believed Jesus with a new assurance of the truth. It was holy-spirit-infused new information. Not the news alone, not the Holy Spirit without any content.  Both together.

If you are a born-from-above believer, then you too have the Holy Spirit in you. And he is able to transform truth into power that you don’t physically feel. But believing you can do what God says is enough.

The parallels between working out, eating healthy and God’s amazing news of reality fascinate me in how they transform ‘mere’ words or energy expenditure or food intake into a powerful force that I can’t actually FEEL.  But I see the results, the outcome.   

So it was with my immediate change in mood and outlook last week. That incident renewed my trust in the Lord.  If he can act THAT fast in such a significant way, dispatching the obsessively fearful and negative thoughts, then I want to take him at his word ALL the time.

Why are we surprised at how American society treats Christians?

May 22, 2016

Maria 2 Timothy, Acts, Judges 6, Nehemiah, Persecution, Proverbs, Psalm 66, suffering, Trials , , , , , , , Leave a comment

When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”  “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?”   Judges 6:12-13

As a marginalized Christian, do you ever feel like Gideon? The warp-speed of cultural change week to week has startled many, me included.  We feel less welcome to voice our values in the public sphere.  But it wasn’t that long ago that we FELT as though we fit in with the majority of Americans.   Not that we were ever in harmony with ‘mainstream’ America.  For we’ve accepted for years that we were as different as chalk and cheese when measured against the Hollywood or the academic and media names in the news.

However, these days a feeling of fear and despair is seeping under the doorways of our conscious mind and we find ourselves, if not anxious, at least bewildered.   Is this the way God treats His children?

Yes!!! and we should not be surprised. After all, God’s Word describes the very same situation throughout biblical history.

In my Bible-reading this morning I read two of the assigned psalms with much more interest and attention than previous years. The unnamed Psalmist minces no words as he describes how he and fellow believers suffered during what many commentators posit as the likely precipitating distress:  the siege of Sennacherib in 721 BC.

Psalm 66: 10-12

For you, O God, have tested us;
    you have tried us as silver is tried.
You brought us into the net;
    you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
you let men ride over our heads;
    we went through fire and through water;
YET you have brought us out to a place of abundance

Yes, the Psalmist is on the OTHER side of hardship, but 3 facts remain:

  1. God was the source or ultimate originator of the suffering
  2. The horrific and painful trauma was real and distributed to all the Hebrews
  3. God brought them THROUGH the tribulation to a joy-filled destination

Yes, that was then.  But do we American or Western Christians HAVE to suffer…like THAT…now in 2016?????

Let me ask this: Why should God treat us any differently than His chosen people?  He specifically selected the Hebrews out of whom would come His Messiah.  In the same way, He has chosen us, for His purposes.  We belong to Him.  He has the power and the authority and the very RIGHT as our Creator to do with us as He sees best.  We forget THAT ‘inconvenient truth’.

2 Tim 3:12 –  Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted

But that is SCARY!!!!  We all shrink back from the idea of calamity, of hardship and real damage, whether to our reputation, our jobs and income, our families, our churches. or EVEN to the very liberties we once considered safeguarded by the US Constitution!

So why is God doing this?  Does His Word tell us anything?

Fortunately it does, but the reason might not be something we moderns like.

Psalm 69:7 – I am being mocked because of you. Dishonor overwhelms me

Psalm 44:22 – Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered

Acts 5:41- So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name

Psalm 44:11 – You give us as sheep to be eaten And have scattered us among the nations

What we know is limited, but many verses tell us that for the sake of God’s name or character, those who follow Him WILL be mocked, persecuted and even killed.  And even though we don’t know ALL the whys or wherefores, we can take comfort that God does have a plan and IN THE END, those who mocked God and us shall be punished.

Prov 11:21 Be assured that the evil person will certainly be punished, but the descendants of the righteous will not suffer unjust judgment.

So how can we prepare ourselves to handle this suffering?

Here’s encouraging advice from a man who faced suffering with courage- Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Link here.  In short, he says that gathering with the local church to HEAR the Gospel truth preached and exposited gives us strength and perspective to endure with grace.

So ‘do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength’. Neh 8:10