The Lord said to him, Peace be to you, do not fear; you shall not die. (Judges 6:23, AMP)
In a recent entry (Conspiracy Theories), I had the following epiphany…
Don’t think everyone is out to get you -trust God. Don’t think you can’t change – with God you can. Don’t compromise your values – God will tell you what is acceptable in His eyes. Don’t be afraid – with God all things are possible, and He is with us always. Love others at all times.
Shortly after I wrote that study (a few years back), I faced a huge trial and I FAILED MISERABLY. I allowed my boss to write me up, for an offense I am not even certain was being communicated correctly. HR was in attendance and this was a final warning. I fell apart as thoughts swarmed my mind taking me back and forth between my head and my heart.
Not everyone is out to get me – trust God. I didn’t. I believed everyone was out to get me - it was obviously a plot to fire me…jeez Louise, couldn’t anyone else see what was going on here?
Don’t think you can’t change – God can change you. I forgot this too…I needed to get out of my own way, so God could change me.
Don’t compromise your values, God will tell you what is acceptable in His eyes. Looking back, I realize that I was compromising my values in that position. God had me in the job for a purpose, but I was not being true to who I was in Jesus. I was allowing my job to dictate my walk, instead of allowing my walk to dictate who I was on the job.
Don’t be afraid – with God all things are possible. I knew that, I just need to get out of the way, so He could work.
Love others at all times – yes, even when they are “attacking” me, (which was the word I used). I realize now that they weren’t attacking me, Satan was. Hindsight always being 20-20, I realize that if Satan could get in and offend me somehow in the circumstance, then he could take my eyes off the goal, which is to love others. Instead in my offense, I would only be worried about me…and griping about them. Not exactly what God was calling us to do.
In today’s verse, God says peace be to you, do not fear, you shall not die. At those times when we feel like we cannot go another step, or face another circumstance, sometimes we utter feelings of absolute desolation or frustration. In those moments God is calling out to us and telling us to just hang in there, He has our back, and will carry us through this situation in ways we cannot understand or comprehend in the moment.
The key is to get outside the moment, to realize that fear is only temporary and spurred by our emotions. That day in the office when I was written up I had all sorts of emotions flying through me; anger, despair, fear, worry, offense, self-righteousness, etc. In those emotions, I could not think clearly.
God calls us to peace. He wants us to rest in Him and believe that He will take care of our every need, our every worry, and our every concern – no matter how big or small.
In the end, I did eventually lose that particular job. There was such humiliation that settled on me, as I had never been fired before. But through the despair, I found peace, and I learned to lean on God through the hard times. I learned that if I resist fear, and seek peace, that God is faithful, and He will provide for my every need according to His riches and glory. (Philippians 4:29, KJV)
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