We are nearing the end. One week of homework left in Priscilla Shirer’s powerful study on Gideon found in Judges 6 – 8.
This picture isn’t as reflective of a specific message in Gideon, but a request of God that Priscilla Shirer made for women doing this study during Audio Session 6. That all we have learned God would set seal over our heart. That He who began a good work in you would be faithful to complete it. (Phil. 1:6)
That is my prayer as well. That something you read would be a word God would speak in your life and would seal over your heart.
We skip a bit over our story from where we left Gideon last week. He had stopped trusting and listening to God and he had set off on a personal vengeance mission. Read Judges 8 to see what happens next. As Priscilla puts it, Gideon starts believing his own press and stops deflecting glory from himself and turning to God. In fact, even though he does eventually refute the crown offered to him and his sons, he does not refute the credit given him.
Gideon doesn’t turn and say, hey, don’t you remember, I was terrified. This unbelievable win, this victory, that was ALL God. No. Instead he believes his own press. And he called for them to give him an offering, not God. Psalm 75:6 says, “promotion comes not from the East or the West but from the Lord.” All too often, we give credit to someone or something tangible. We take credit for ourselves, oh look what I accomplished in my own strength, or we give credit to circumstances or a mentor or timing. All of those things are excellent, but they are God provided.
Gideon lost his allegiance to the God that rescued him and his people once he had won the war. “We have to have the same allegiance coming out of the battle as we did going in.” (Priscilla Shirer, Gideon Session 6)
The lesson for this week focused on WHO IS KING in our life?
Gideon’s story ends, sadly, exactly where it started. With Israel enslaved. Why? Because Gideon refused to give the glory to God. He allowed the Israelites to raise him up instead. And the idol he made from the spoils of the war, “All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.”
What has become a snare in our own life?
Who or what has authority in our life?
Who have we been giving the credit too?
Do we deflect glory back to God? Keep anything that belongs to God?
Who is King? Is it a relationship? A hobby? A job? An addiction? Media? It’s where we spend our time, where we give our focus, where we allocate our resources that shows what actually governs our life. I’m certainly going to spend time praying this week about what I’ve been placing above God in my own life. I imagine each one of us has an opportunity for radical transformation if we will lay some things down and put God back on the throne.
Leave a Reply