As my church prepares to move into a building that is much bigger and more expensive than where we are now and doing that in a terrible economic climate, I find great comfort in knowing that my fears aren't unnatural or un-godly. We tend to believe that if anyone has heard from the Lord and yet doesn't have complete peace about a situation then they lack faith but that isn't what I find in scripture, even with Jesus in the garden the night of his arrest.
One of my favorite stories is the story of Gideon. Gideon is a guy living in a miserable time in Israel's history. Their enemies, the Midianites, would lull them into a false sense of security, letting them plant their crops but when the harvest time came, they would swoop in and devour and destroy everything. This had been going on for seven years when we meet Gideon in Judges 6.
The people had cried out to the Lord and He had sent them a prophet who reminded them of all the Lord had done for them and then said, "'I am the LORD your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.' But you have not obeyed my voice." Thanks for the reminder, but what we really wanted was a little help with our problem, not for You to place the blame for the problem. Have you ever had such an answer to prayer? Sometimes we have to own our responsibility for the mess we're in before we can move ahead into God's preferred future. If not, we are likely to end up there again. We have to realize that the way forward begins with changing our behavior that got us where we are in the present.
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