Corona Devo 559

We can be honest with God.

If we are honest, there are times when blessings flow and our gratitude rises to God.

And, if we are being honest, there are other times too.

We can also be honest with God at those times. He welcomes it and He blesses it. Faith, at its core, must be honest.

In the Book of Judges, The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight. So the Lord handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. (2) The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. (Judges 6:1-2).

Ouch. You know things are bad when you are forced to hide-out in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. But if we are honest, we've had to retreat to some of those places before.

Maybe we are hiding in a cave today.

What can we do?

We can do what others who know/and knew the Lord do/have done for generations:

Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help. ~Judges 6:6

We can be honest with God and cry out to Him.

And God will be honest with us. He will remind us of truth. His truth. Because when we are in the mountains, caves, and strongholds, we forget all that God has done for us previously, and we are often blind to His provision even in that moment. The Bible is a resource that we can go back to again and again for the honest truth of how God shows up for His people time after time.

In Judges 6, when the Israelites got honest and humble before God, He sent them a prophet who said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt. (9) I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. (10) I told you, ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me.” ~Judges 6:8-10

God will be honest with us. Infact, God only has one setting--and it is honesty. It is truth. It is righteousness. It is holiness.

But, if we are honest, we switch those settings "off" sometimes. We go our own way. We freak out emotionally/spiritually/physically/mentally, even intellectually, and we hide-out in our caves.

And we have that choice each day. The cave is one life-option, and we've all been there at one time or another: hiding away in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.

But each day we have an opposite opportunity as well. Instead of hiding, we can choose to get busy, even when we feel desperate.

The times were desperate for the Israelites...

Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders...would attack Israel, (4) camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. (5) These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare. (6) So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. ~Judges 6:3-6

Yes, the times were desperate for the Israelites...

And if we are honest, we will have (might BE having) desperate times too...

But not everyone is hiding in the caves. We have a daily choice to persevere and to keep-on-keeping-on, and a guy named Gideon was doing that. Head down and working-to-survive, God saw him (and God sees YOU!).

Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. (12) The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” ~Judges 6:11-12

We can be honest with God, and Gideon was in the middle of hard labor as he processed food to live and he did so (hidden) in a winepress so as not to be seen by the enemy.

Gideon was in a raw place, and he got honest with God.

“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” ~Judges 6:13

The biggest truth that I hear God's word screaming at us today is that WE CAN BE REAL WITH GOD! Gideon sure was. Most of his people were hiding in caves, but he was busting his tail, and he was looking for God.

And it's in those honest moments when God comes looking for us.

And God sees us as we are and He sees us as we will be. In the rawness of that honest moment with Gideon, God speaks purpose, worth and presence into him: “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” ~Judges 6:12

God says the same thing to us today. Let's come out of our caves and hear God's honesty for us today: “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” ~Judges 6:12

Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” ~Judges 6:14

We can be honest with God.

And He's being honest with us. He gives us strength today. And He sends us today.

And we have a choice today.

Come out of your mountains, caves, and strongholds today, Dear One. Our God has not given us a spirit of fear, but instead He dubs us Mighty heroes in His Name, and the Lord is with us today. Amen.

Blessings, 

sarah   

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com