Troubles Lead to Jesus

In Judges 20, all the other tribes of Israel gathered to go to war against the tribe of Benjamin because of the murder of a Levite's concubine--and they refused to surrender the men responsible for capital punishment.  Though Israel sought the LORD before going up to Gibeah to attack the Benjamites, day after day they suffered huge losses.  The fighters of Israel outnumbered the Benjamites 15 to 1, and they still lost 40,000 men over two days.  Copping huge defeats in battle prompted the Israelites to desperately seek God for help and victory.

One might have assumed because Israel sought the LORD and obeyed Him they would have been assured of success, but victory did not immediately come.  They came to realise despite their manpower and righteous cause they had no chance of success without God's guidance and strength.  They would have been content to be only told what to do, yet God was working toward another aim entirely:  to draw all the children of Israel to Himself and increase their faith in Him.  Sometimes we can have the same approach when we see people who are deceived or without understanding concerning the Christian faith.  We imagine if we only responded to their skepticism or unbelief with the perfect verse (when all God's word is true) a hard heart would soften, a mind would change, and a life would be transformed.  If the outcome of our best efforts falls short of our expectations, we put the onus back on ourselves to know more and do better--when the LORD would have us seek and trust Him to do all the work we cannot.

2 Timothy 2:15 says, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  We have a responsibility and privilege as God's children to read the Bible (God's word) and to walk in light of it.  We ought to labour to dig into the word to gain knowledge and learn how to rightly divide and interpret it as led by the Holy Spirit.  At the same time we are should realise much more than knowledge is needed to change people's minds and hearts.  The strongest arguments and evidence will fall on deaf ears unless the LORD does a miraculous work in others and they willingly yield to Him.  I love how God is able to reveal Himself to people through ways we never imagined possible, to communicate truth that deeply affects people for life.  One sentence, phrase or word spoken by God, a feeling people cannot shake, even a sleepless night can be used by God to orchestrate eternal transformation by His grace.

God is able to use anything and anyone--including us imperfect Christians who make mistakes, flub our words, forget scripture references and can be easily mixed up.  We are incapable of doing good ourselves and are deeply flawed, yet our God is more than sufficient and perfect in every way.  That is a reason why we came to Jesus Christ at the beginning, because we were hopeless and unable to save ourselves!  As much as we desire to see more sinners saved by the Gospel, God has already shown a full commitment to this by sending Jesus Christ to seek and save the lost.  When we face conflict we cannot overcome ourselves, should we feel disillusioned, discouraged and feel like failures, allow the full force of our failure and negative feelings lead us by the hand to Jesus who encourages, strengthens us and increases our faith.  It is not by our might, nor our power but by the Holy Spirit obstacles are overcome--even when it is our own unbelief.