And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. – Luke 1:11-13 ESV
Warrior;
God is in Control! For behold, He Who forms mountains and creates the wind and declares to man what are His thoughts, He Who makes dawn into darkness and treads on the high places of the earth, the LORD God of hosts (Sabaoth) is His name. Amos 4:13) God is Jehovah Sabaoth; the Lord of hosts, meaning, of ALL the angelic world. From Amos’ description, God’s attributes of sovereignty, omniscience and omnipotence are clearly implied by this majestic Name. It is in HIS HANDS that those who call on HIS NAME and the name of HIS SON, Jesus-REST. As we learn in the book of Job, nothing can happen to us outside of the permissive will of God. Our job is to trust IN HIM, like Job did- no matter the circumstances; He said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ (Job 1:21)
Leader, it is normal to feel fear, but we are called to NOT BE AFRAID. There are close to 400 times that God tells us to NOT BE AFRAID. God knows that this world is at war with HIM and HIS followers and He also wants us to know HE IS on the JOB and HE IS IN CONTROL, even when the world and its leaders mock Him, and it seems like evil is reigning. Therefore, we need to be around like-minded believers in church and daily in fellowship with blogs like this, in the WORD being encouraged to FIGHT the GOOD FIGHT, to run a good race. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore, the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1)
Conduit, John Wesley understood the power of Focus when he said; “Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I will shake the world.” Zechariah had been praying to God for years for a child and when God answered his prayer, he was afraid, and he didn’t believe! If you read further in Luke, you will find that he lost his ability to speak until after John was born. God tells so many stories in the Bible like this, for our benefit, so we can see and hear how others struggled and others stumbled- and yet we call them great. You too can be great, but it takes the right focus. We are to focus on GOD, HIS POWER, HIS WILL, and HIS MIGHT. In the book of Judges, we read about a man full of fear, Gideon. As we read about Gideon, we see that he has many fears and that he is not very confident. He has a poor self-image. He’s afraid of the Midianites; he’s afraid of the men in his own village. Even after being visited by God he’s still afraid of the enemy’s army when it gathers in a nearby valley. Gideon was afraid, but when he finally put his trust in God and obeyed, the Israelites were freed from seven years of oppression. There will always be moments in life when we are worried to give ourselves over to God, but the truth is we can trust him with our tomorrows. Today, choose to focus on GOD and not the object of our FEARS and remember like Gideon, and so many other people of the Bible; The battle is the Lords! In our weakness HIS STRENGTH IS PERFECTED! Keep your focus on the one who is OMNIPOTENT; HE is ALL POWERFUL!
Way of The Warrior- A Daily Devotional 