Recently, I wrote a blog referencing Gideon and the call of God on his life.  I want to go back to draw another lesson from that story.  In Judges 6, the text reads…

The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.” The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family” (Judges 6:11-15).

The angel of the Lord called out Gideon’s destiny as a “mighty warrior,” but Gideon clearly did not see himself as the Lord saw him.  We are told that he was threshing wheat in a wine press because he was hiding from Midianite raiders.  He had little faith in God to work though him because, from his perspective, God had abandoned Israel.  That is not the mindset of a mighty warrior.  And yet, that is what God said he was.

As you read through Judges, you see the steps that God took with Gideon to bring him into his destiny.  It wasn’t an immediate transformation but a progression that took time and a number of experiences with God.  His first assignment as the “deliverer of Israel” was to tear down the altar to Baal and the Asherah pole that accompanied the altar and to build an altar to God in its place.

That same night the Lord said to him, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father’s altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper kind of altar to the Lord your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering” (Judges 6:25-26). 

As you read further in Judges 6, you discover that Gideon was obedient but not particularly bold.  He tore down the altar at night and took ten men with him.  But that was a first step in learning to trust God.  As the story develops, God asks him to do harder things…but a little at a time, giving him assurances as he went.  Sometimes we find ourselves being timid when God calls us to do something and then feel as if we have failed altogether because we were not aggressive and bold in doing what he asked.  But God is willing to let us grow in faith and boldness. 

God told him to “go in the strength you have,” not in the strength he would have in five or ten years. So, be obedient to the extent that you can and know that God is growing you into a “mighty warrior.”  Don’t beat yourself up because you weren’t a fearless evangelist or a fearless healer the first time God gave you an opportunity to share the gospel or pray for healing. Do what you can and then pray for more opportunities and more boldness the next time.  Your willingness to entertain a “next time” is the main thing.

Secondly, in order for Gideon to step into his destiny, he had to tear down false altars and build a new and authentic altar to God.  If we keep worshipping at false altars, Satan will have his way with us.  If we try to worship at the true altar and still show up at our false altars we will also fail to move ahead. Jesus said we cannot serve two masters.  All the false altars have to be destroyed. How do I know what my altars are?  They are simply the things I give the highest priority in my life.

There are altars of comfort and safety.  There are altars of recreation, career, addictions, fame, money and even family.  If I put one or more of those altars ahead of God, then those altars must be torn down. Whatever organizes my life in terms of how I spend my time, money, or energy is my actual altar.  

Many of us will profess that the altar we worship at is the true altar of God, but that is often an aspirational value, not an actual value. If our job consistently keeps us from church and from serving God, then we most likely are worshipping at the altar of career or materialism. If we miss months of connecting with spiritual family and serving in the kingdom because we are chasing our kid’s club team around the country, we are most likely worshipping at the altar of family. If we disappear for months every year because we are at the deer lease, we are worshipping at the altar of recreation or self-fulfillment. If I never step out of my comfort zone to pray for someone or share the gospel at an opportune moment, then I am likely worshipping at the altar of comfort and safety (my personal favorite).  

These altars must be torn down and one altar erected to the one true God if I am to fulfill the destiny God has ordained for me.  It’s quite easy to justify our altars to ourselves and those we know, but not to God. I am not advocating an austere life in which we never take a vacation or go to the deer lease or watch our kids play ball.  Those things are not sin…until we give them a higher priority than serving God and loving his people. 

Whatever false altar we worship at, we demonstrate to our children, our co-workers,  or our friends that there are things more important than knowing and serving God.  For instance, in an effort to support our kids and show them love, we often demonstrate that their interests and desires are more important than the desires of God.  We demonstrate that the world revolves around them, instead of Jesus Christ.  Later, when they simply give God the leftovers of their life in a very casual relationship with him, we wonder what happened. They noticed the altars at which we were worshipping. 

These are serious considerations for those who want to follow Jesus and become the man or woman he wants us to be.  Ask him to reveal any false altars that are keeping you from your destiny and ask how you are to tear them down.  Then ask the Holy Spirit to build a true altar for the living God in your heart.  These are the first steps in being a “mighty warrior” for God. 

Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.  Psalm 39:4

I don’t know how many of us would pray the prayer of David, quoted above. Most of us want to live as if death is for other people, not for us. We don’t want to contemplate our own death. We don’t want to think about how remarkably short our lives can be our how quickly our years are flying by. And yet, the brevity of life in this world is a constant theme in scripture.

David’s point was not a morbid fascination about his own death, but rather a desire to make every day count because life goes by much faster than we anticipate. Making every day count for eternity is the ultimate wisdom. The illusion that we will live forever creates a mindset that we can put off the most important things until life is more convenient.

We keep thinking we will make that phone call later; we will confront the problem as soon as we get it all figured out; we will really press into our relationship with God as soon as our life slows down; we will mend that relationship at a time when we have more emotional energy. We tend to think that we will get around to the most important things as soon as our career is established, our family is grown, or our relationships are where we want them to be. David’s point was that none of us are promised tomorrow on this planet, so we need to prioritize our lives and do the most important things today…regardless of how inconvenient or difficult it may be.

When we think about it, we probably all know that one of Satan’s great strategies against us is distraction. We just rarely think of it or rarely choose to think of it. There is always something that can take our eyes off the most important things in life. In his “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus warned us not to be preoccupied with the material things of life – what we will eat, what we will wear, or where we shall live. He clearly stated that our heavenly Father knows that we need these things and, as a good father, will provide all that we need…if we keep our priorities straight. “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you” (Mt. 6:33).

And yet, most of us as believers, still fill our days with worry about those things. We work eighty-hour weeks to provide the “finer things” for our families, stay awake wondering about our 401K’s when the market tanks, buy more car and more house that we need in order to feel good about ourselves, constantly fight over finances with our spouse, chase all over the country every weekend for our kids to play soccer, baseball, or volleyball…so they can feel good about themselves, and then try to squeeze in a little time for Jesus when we can.

The devil’s distractions for believers are typically not sinful things. They are usually good things that we simply give more time and energy to than they deserve. Our problem is that we don’t live with an eternal view. If we are truthful, we might admit that on a day-to-day basis, we may give little thought to spiritual realities. We are prone to only consider spiritual things on Sunday mornings, while we think of this world as all there is, on the other six days of the week. By and far, we spend our time and resources on things that pertain only to this world and not the world to come. However, when we stand before Jesus he will not evaluate our lives based on the size of our house, our vacation destinations, or whether we had a swimming pool. We will not be judged on the basis of whether we drove a Ford or a Lexus. We won’t be praised on the basis of how many miles we logged taking our kids to club ball instead of church.

Again, these are not wrong in themselves but, if we are honest, we often give them a much greater priority than we give the kingdom of heaven. We would probably deny that, but it is true. Our aspirational value is to make Jesus the most important thing in life, but our actual values are revealed by what we do rather than what we should do. Simply add up the time, energy, and money you give to spiritual matters and those you give to material matters and you will get a more accurate perspective of what is truly important to you.

David’s prayer was that he would never lose sight of how fleeting this life can be, so that he would live each day with eternal priorities. That should be our prayer as well. Otherwise, we will die with a long list of good intentions that we never got around to. The illusion is that we will get serious about those more important things…later. Many of those things we put off are promptings from the Holy Spirit. The danger is that we can put those things off long enough that we he stops prompting us. Then, the most important things may go undone altogether.

In my moments of clarity, I want to number my days as David did…making each one count from heaven’s perspective. I don’t always do that, but I find questions are often a good way to help me evaluate my own actual priorities rather than my aspirational priorities and make needed adjustments. Maybe these will help you as well, if you are serious about eternal issues.

1. What is the Holy Spirit prompting me to do that I keep finding reasons to put off?

2. What am I giving my best time, energy, and resources to…other than God?

3. What activities or career issues do I often choose over church, spiritual family, or ministry?

4. If I am honest with myself, have I been more interested in the approval of men lately or the approval of God?

5. If people looked at what I do more than what I say, what would they believe is the primary source of my identity, my significance, and my satisfaction? Would they see it as Jesus Christ or something else?

6. What values am I modeling for my kids with the way I spend my time, money, or energy? Would they see me giving God the first fruits of my life or simply the leftovers?

7. What do I need to change or let go of in order to genuinely live with a view towards eternity rather than the pleasures and promises of this world? What am I lying to myself about?

May we, like David, learn to live each day with God’s priorities so that every day is lived without regret and stores up for us, and our children, riches in heaven.