God-Given Guts!

Based on 1 Samuel 14

What gets your adrenaline flowing? What gets your heart pumping? What causes you to decide it’s time to get moving, time to take a stand? What crystallizes your thoughts and desires into action?

In 1 Samuel 14, Jonathan decides that he’s done waiting around for the battle to come to him. He decides the time is right to take things into his own hands and make his move.

Read through 1 Samuel 14 in your Bible or at www.biblegateway.com. To get a better feel for the situation Jonathan finds himself in, start in chapter 13.

What causes you to decide it’s time to take a stand?

What does your answer reveal about your priorities? Who you know God to be? Your relationship with Him? His gifting and call on your life?

I especially like verse 6—

"Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.”

The Message puts it this way—

"Come on now, let's go across to these uncircumcised pagans. Maybe God will work for us. There's no rule that says God can only deliver by using a big army. No one can stop God from saving when he sets his mind to it.”

“Perhaps.” “Maybe.”

Jonathan doesn’t wait until he’s assured that he’ll be successful in his daring attempt. For him, the opportunity stirs him to action, his faith is revealed in the doing.

Plucky. Courageous. Bold. Daring. Like current day fictional heroes Indiana Jones or James Bond, or Ben Gates in National Treasure. Jonathan sees a challenge and doesn’t just say “why”; he says “why not do something about this?” He figures that if God has put a challenge in front of him, it’s because God wants him to do something.

The choice to sit and wait while the tension and dread mount or stepping out in faith to see how God will act, become crystal clear, and he knows it’s time to act.

What challenge has God put in front of you?

What do you think He wants you to do about it?

What’s stopping you?

Jonathan’s armor bearer goes with him. Jonathan is one of those guys that are always found with someone else beside them. Either he’s standing alongside his dad, the king, with his armor bearer, or his friend David. He is wise enough to develop relationships with someone who has his back, not just figuratively speaking, but someone who has a vital role to play in accomplishing the mission.

"Do all that you have in mind," his armor-bearer said. "Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul."—verse 7

It reminds me of Jesus sending His disciples out in pairs (Mark 6:7 and 10:1). Jesus surrounded Himself with close friends, developed deep and abiding relationships with them, and sent them out together to serve others in His name.

Jonathan had done the same with his armor-bearer. Jonathan trusts the armor bearer completely, and the armor bearer trusts Jonathan completely. He is willing to risk what looks like certain death on the basis of his confidence in Jonathan’s leadership and God-confidence,

Who has your back?

Who are you willing to put yourself on the line to support?

Then come the words that confirm Jonathan’s courage found its source in trusting the Lord, not his own abilities—

Come, then; we will cross over toward the men and let them see us. If they say to us, 'Wait there until we come to you,' we will stay where we are and not go up to them. But if they say, 'Come up to us,' we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the LORD has given them into our hands."—verses 8-10

Jonathan’s thinking is reminiscent of David’s response when facing Goliath’s taunt in 1 Samuel 17—

As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it….David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”… David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”—verses 23, 26, 32

What in your life reveals God-given guts?

What signs do you look for to know that God is calling you forward in spite of what the situation looks like from a human perspective?

What are you willing to risk to make a difference for God?

Throughout Scripture, we are called to take courage, to be strong and courageous.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.—2 Timothy 1:7

God-given guts, courage, were the hallmark of early followers of Jesus—

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.—Acts 4:13

Courage flows from knowing how big God is and who Jesus is. Jonathan’s faith in God produced courage to advance against an overwhelming enemy. As Jonathan stepped out in faith, God demonstrated His power through him.

What about you?

To view the worship celebration related to this Next Step, visit http://www.touchandchange.com/artman/publish/article_1601.shtml

Move!!!

Based on 2 Kings 7

It’s interesting to me how God frames some of His most amazing work in desperation. It’s like the darkness of life’s circumstances become the setting that allow His work to be showcased. That’s the way it is throughout the Scriptures, and poignantly so in this story.

Read it in your Bible or at http://www.biblegateway.com. (Check out 2 Kings 6:24-33 to get the background.)

Samaria, the capital of the renegade tribes of Israel, is besieged by an enemy; the people are dying from starvation, to the extent that a woman agrees to kill and eat her own child in order to live for one more day; the king has given up hope and instead of calling out to God, is looking for someone to blame, and God’s representative Elisha is the perfect target.

Desperation rules the day.

As desperate as it is within the city, where the city walls built to protect them have become the bars on their prison cell, outside the walls is a community of contagious people who aren’t even afforded the protection of living within the city walls. Excluded and cast off by the people in their community, they are open to attack by any and every enemy.

They have no control over the disease that has come upon them, no control over being rejected by others, and have accepted the reality that they are unfit for human contact, unwelcome, and unprotected from the enemy that surrounds them.

They are trapped, with no place to go.

What “un-[fill_in_the_blank]“ word describes your life?

What circumstances in your life have you feeling trapped?

But God is on the move.

Their point of desperation becomes God’s opportunity to showcase His activity.

What’s interesting when you stop and think about it is that these lepers don’t demonstrate much faith, as we tend to think of it. There is no record of them calling out to God, believing that He will intervene, counting on His character or His promises. They actually think that perhaps their enemies will be merciful to them.

Funny, isn’t it, how we long for God’s mercy and look for it in other places, while we are quick to accuse Him of not being merciful? But that’s for another time…back to the lepers.

Their actions are a simple act of survival, born out of the desperate nature of their circumstances. It’s a “something is better than nothing” attitude, an “anything is better than this” decision that prompts them to move.

What they don’t know in the moment is what the outcome will be. And so, their act of desperation becomes an act of faith. They choose to move, without visible evidence that God is anywhere in the picture.

What desperate circumstances have you feeling like your back is up against the wall?

What seems like the only way forward?

Do you dare to believe that God is somewhere in the mix, that He is the one moving, drawing you forward even if you can’t see Him past the enemy that blocks your view?

What they discover is that God is in the mix.

Their desperate circumstances, the very things that brought them to the point of deciding that now is the time to do something, is their doorway into discovering God’s power and provision, for them and for others.

Because God was on the move.

He used a sense of desperation to move the lepers forward. He used desperation, a fear of imminent danger and impending doom, to cause the enemy army to scatter.

The enemy uses desperation as a strategy to trap you, to immobilize you. God uses desperation as a tool to move you into the future He is creating.

What if God wants to use your feelings of desperation to get your attention, to open your eyes to see the situation in front of you from His perspective?

What if God wants to use your feelings of desperation to bring you to the end of yourself so that you’re ready to move beyond hopelessness into a place where you can discover His plan?

What if desperation is really the doorway to the future that God has planned?

An interesting thread in this story is the words of the prophet Elisha. As God’s representative, he dares to say out loud—and to the person in charge—that even in these desperate circumstances, God is at work.

His words frame the story:

Elisha said, "Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says:…—v. 1

…as the LORD had said…And that is exactly what happened…—v. 16, 20

What words of hope and confidence is the Lord giving you in the midst of desperate circumstances?

Who needs to hear them?

Are you looking for God in the midst of the desperate situation that surrounds you?

Jesus said—

"My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."—John 5:17. God is on the move.

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."—John 16:33. There is hope for us when things are desperate.

Jesus’ words to Paul when he despaired, were—

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”—2 Corinthians 12:9. Jesus chooses to use desperate people who turn to Him in their weakness, and depend on His grace to keep moving forward. Look how he used Paul!

Move!!!

To view the worship celebration related to this Next Step, visit http://www.touchandchange.com/artman/publish/article_1595.shtml