Read:
Judges 6:11-24, NLT
Reflect:
“It’s all right,” the Lord replied. “Do not be afraid. You will not die.” Judges 6:23, NLT
To be a hero in life is not trying to be the greatest of all time – it is making a difference in the world by being a blessing to others. Times of adversities are times when heroes and heroines are born. Adversities are opportunities to discover our faith and find strength to be a hero for God. In the Old Testament, we have the story of Gideon who was called a “mighty hero” as he was hiding from the Midianites:
“The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”
Gideon was far from being a hero, let alone a mighty one! He was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. He was the least in his entire family and his clan was the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh. He was living in a time when the Jews felt abandoned by God and they were crying out to God for help.1 When his offering of a young goat and unleavened bread was consumed with fire by the angel who then disappeared, Gideon was filled with a sense of doom. But the Lord assured him: “It is all right, Do not be afraid. You will not die.”2
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God when we are living under the wrath of God.3 But when God is our refuge, the angel of the Lord is our guard who surrounds and defends all who fear him.4 God does not want us to be afraid of Him but to love Him with all our hearts so that we can love our neighbors as we love ourselves.5 We need wisdom to use our freedom to do so and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.6 Wisdom leads to humility, righteousness and life. Without the fear of God, we will do whatever seemed right in our own eyes.7 Like Adam and Eve, we will be tempted to seek knowledge which leads to pride, self righteousness and death.8
Jesus came as a baby with absolutely nothing. He was born under the worst circumstances – there was no room in the inn and he was born in a manger. He died as a nobody on the cross. Jesus lived and died as a zero to show us that we have everything we need to be God’s heroes in the world through the power of the Holy Spirit. All human heroes become zeroes in life or in death. Jesus came to show as the way to be a spiritual hero by becoming a human zero.
God’s grace is always sufficient and His power is made perfect when we are weak.9 The foolish plan of God’s salvation is wiser than the wisest of human plans and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.10 God’s thoughts are nothing like our thoughts and His ways are far beyond anything we can imagine.11 We need to be filled with the awe of God like Gideon. We need to come to the end of ourselves – to understand how small and insignificant we are and cry out in awe with the psalmist:
“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers – the moon and the stars you set in place – what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?”
But God has made us a little lower than angels and crowned us with glory and honor. He has given us dominion over the works of His Hands.12 The stories of angels in the bible are to teach us that there is a spiritual or supernatural dimension of life that is beyond our thoughts. The journey of a spiritual hero begins with the awareness that we are nothing without God. Without God we can do nothing but when we are in Christ we can do everything that we are called to do for God.
The practice of spiritual disciplines is to be connected with the spiritual wifi of God. To fill our lives with divine radiance, we need to spend time with God regularly. It is not a burden but a great joy to be with God in silence and solitude. When we have been touched by the Presence of God, there will be a difference in the way we think, feel and act – we will not be zeroes but spiritual heroes who shine brightly like stars as God’s beloved in a dark and meaningless world.13 Pride drives us to be heroes in the world. To keep our significance of being a part of the body of Christ from getting blown up into self importance,13 we need to be still before the presence of God.14
“Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,
Each thought and each motive beneath His control.
Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,
Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.”15
Respond:
Lord, grant me the humility to be a zero so that I can be a hero in Your kingdom.
Reframe:
- How does the story of Gideon encourage me to be a spiritual hero?
- Why is necessary for me to be a “zero” to fulfill God’s will for me?
- How am I taking time to be holy?
Song of Praise:
Take Time To Be Holy
SDG
Notes:
- Judges 6:1-15, NLT
- Judges 6:16-23, NLT
- Hebrews 10: 31, NKJV
- Psalms 34:7, NLT
- Luke 10:27, NLT
- Psalms 111:10, NKJV
- Judges 21:25, NLT
- Genesis 3:1-19, NLT
- 2 Corinthians 12:9, ESV
- 1 Cor 1:25, NLT
- Isaiah 55:8, NLT
- Psalm 8:3-8, NKJV
- 1 Corinthians 12:19-24, MSG
- Psalm 46:10, NLT
- Take Time To Be Holy, William D. Longstaff
Reflections On Following Christ 