Jan 15 - Judges 6:23-24

The Lord said to Gideon,

"Peace be to you;

do not fear, you shall not die."

Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord,

and called it, The Lord is peace.

Judges 6:23-24

Fear is one of the most dangerous forces in the world ... and it lurks in our own hearts.

• Fear breeds hatred, injustice, and revenge. 
  
• It's often behind curses and denials.
  
• Fear has a hand in both bullying and arrogance; we inflate our worth because we're afraid that on our own we don't have much worth. 
  
• Part of guilt is fear; we fear we we can't be forgiven.
  
• Part of self-justication is fear; we lack a trust in God's grace to justify.
  
• Part of greed is fear; we're afraid we won't have enough.
  
• We're afraid of meaninglessness.
  
• We're afraid of illness.
  
• We're afraid of brokenness and bondage.
  
• Most of all we're afraid of death.

Indeed, at the root of all our fears is that fear of death. We're afraid of literal death, of course. We're also afraid of figurative deaths. Gossip and embarrassment, for example, have us dying a thousand little deaths.

That's why God gave Gideon today's verse. Soon God would tell Gideon to battle an army of a 100,000 with his own little band of 300. By human standards, that was insane! But God empowered Gideon with a simple promise: "Do not fear. You shall not die."

Guess what. God tells you that too. He tells you that if you believe shall live forever.

This mortal flesh shall indeed decay. But when you have the confidence of heaven, you have boldness!

In Christ's Love,

a guy who's learning

to boldly say,

"Any day's a good day

to go to heaven"