#67. Judges 4-6 | Strong Women + A God Who is Patient Even When We are Overwhelmed, Anxious, and Doubting

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Welcome to The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.

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I'm Stephanie Hicock, and we continue

to press into Christ because he's

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a God that longs to dwell with us

so much that he left the glory of

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heaven to come down to rescue us.

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Today we'll focus on Judges

chapter four through six.

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But before we dive into that, I wanted to

read a quote from an article I found on

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the Gospel Coalition website describing

how we can find Jesus in judges.

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The author writes, while these

judges did sometimes engage in what

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we think of as judging, their main

activity is described as saving.

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Speaker 3: It is because of this repeated

description of judges saving Israel, that

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Nehemiah would later look back at this

period and say that God gave them saviors.

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This word in the Greek translation of

Nehemiah 9 27 Soter will later be used

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in the Greek New Testament to describe.

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The ultimate deliverer for onto you is

born this day in the city of David, a

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Savior Soter, who is Christ the Lord.

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Speaker 5: we might well ask, why would

God send saviors to people so persistently

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defeated, disobedient, and fickle, and

judges tells us that the Lord was moved

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to pity by their groaning because of

those who afflicted and oppressed them.

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As the Puritan Thomas Goodwin once

counseled believers, your very sins

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move him to pity more than to anger

even as the heart of a father is to a

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child That has some loathsome disease.

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God sent them saviors for the same

reason he sent us one, not because

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we deserved one, but because

he saw how much we needed one.

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This is how judges points to Jesus by

showing us a God who's not only angry at

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sin, but also filled pity for sinners.

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I thought this beautifully explained.

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How we can have hope even in the midst

of reading these defeating stories.

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In chapter four, we get to

meet some really cool women.

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First we have Deborah, who is elevated

by the people and by scripture for her

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wisdom, faith, and resourcefulness.

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She calls out Barack, who was

supposed to be leading the people.

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And she challenges him.

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Didn't God tell you he was going to

use you to defeat our oppressors?

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And shockingly Barack says, if

you go with me, I'll go, but

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if you won't go, I won't go.

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And she tells him she will go, but a woman

is gonna get the glory for the victory.

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Their enemy.

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Cicero had 900 chariots of iron, and he

leads them into an area that from above,

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looks like it should be a great flat area

for chariots, but in fact, it was where a

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river drained and could be quite swampy.

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The Lord routed cera and all his chariots.

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He dismounts and runs away to

the tent of a woman named jl.

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She woos him to safety, offers him

milk and hides him underneath the rug.

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But while he's in a deep post

battle sleep, she takes a tent

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peg and a hammer and drives them

into his temple, killing him.

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She is a tough woman, and just

as Deborah prophesied, she

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gets the glory for the battle.

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And in chapter five, Deborah

and Barack sing a worship song.

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They challenge the people to repeat

the righteous triumphs of the Lord.

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And I can't help but chuckle at

the simplicity of the way that it

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describes j L's defeat of cera.

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She struck Cera.

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She crushed his head.

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She shattered and pierced his temple

between her feet, he sank, he fell.

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He lay still between her feet, he sank.

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He fell where he sank.

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There he fell.

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Dead.

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Can you imagine singing

that as a worship song?

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But thankfully, they're rejoicing

in the victory that God gave them.

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Then we're told that the land had rest

for 40 years, but in chapter six, the

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cycle that we see over and over in judges

continues because the people of Israel did

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what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

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So the Lord gave them into the hand

of the Midianites for seven years.

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And then the people cry

out for help from the Lord.

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It's in verse 11 that the angel

of the Lord comes to Gideon.

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He was beating out wheat in the wine

press, which means that they couldn't

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even prepare their food for fear

that the Midianites would catch them.

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Speaker 6: Beginning in verse 11, now

the angel of the Lord came and sat under

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the Tarin at Oprah, which belonged to

Jo the Abbi, right while his son Gideon,

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was beating out wheat in the wine

press to hide it from the Midianites.

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And the angel of the Lord appeared

to him and said the Lord is

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with you, almighty man of valor.

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And Gideon said to him, please, my

Lord, if the Lord is with us, why

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then has all this happened to us?

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And where are all his wonderful deeds

that our fathers recounted to us saying,

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did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?

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But now the Lord has forsaken us and

given us into the hand of Midian?

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And the Lord turned to him and said.

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Go in this might of yours and save

Israel from the hand of Midian.

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Do not I send you.

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And he said to him, please,

Lord, how can I save Israel?

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Behold, my clan is the weakest

in Manasses, and I am the

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least in my father's house.

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And the Lord said to him, but I

will be with you and you shall

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strike the Midianites as one man.

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And he said to him, if now I have found

favor in your eyes, then show me a

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sign that it is you who speak with me.

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Please do not depart from here

until I come to you and bring out

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my present and set it before you.

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And he said, I will stay till you return.

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Gideon goes inside and prepares a

meal for the Lord when he returns.

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The Lord says to put it on a rock,

and immediately when he raises his

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staff fire springs up from the rock

and the Lord vanishes from his sight.

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This is always how God receives an

offering in the Old Testament and

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is a confirmation of his presence.

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continuing in verse 22,

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then Gideon perceived that he

was the angel of the Lord and

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Gideon said, alas, oh Lord God.

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For now I have seen the angel of

the Lord face to face, but the

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Lord said to him, peace be to you.

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Do not fear.

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You shall not die.

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Then Gideon built an altar to the

Lord and called it the Lord is peace.

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To this day, it stands at Oprah,

which belongs to the Abbi rights.

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Next God commands him to tear

down the high places in the altars

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of pagan worship in his town.

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He's afraid.

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So he does it at night and in the

morning when the men rise, they find

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out, what's been done to their gods

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and they realize that

Gideon has done this.

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They bring his father Joe Ash out,

and say we need to kill your son,

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But Joe says, if Baal is so

powerful, let him defend himself.

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Of course, the fake God does nothing.

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And then in verse 34, but the spirit of

the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded

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the trumpet and the Abby Asite were

called out to follow him, and he sent

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messengers throughout all manasses, and

they too were called out to follow him.

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And he sent messengers to

Asher Zebulon and NAF to lie

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and they went up to meet them.

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Then Gideon said to God, if you

will save Israel by my hand, as you

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have said, behold I am laying a

fleece of wool on the Thring floor.

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If there is due on the fleece alone and

it is dry on all the ground, then I shall

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know that you will save Israel by my hand.

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As you have said.

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And it was.

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So when he rose early next, morning and

squeezed the fleece, he rung enough dew

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from the fleece to fill a bowl with water.

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Then Gideon said to God, let

not your anger burn against me.

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Let me speak just once more.

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Please.

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Let me test just once

more with the fleece.

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Please let it be dry on the fleece only,

and on all the ground, let there be due.

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And God did so that night.

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And it was dry on the fleece only,

and on all the ground there was due.

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Can't you relate to Gideon?

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As I've said many times throughout

this podcast, without the

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word of God, I am basket case.

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I need God to reassure me so often

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In many moments here, I get where

Gideon is coming from, especially

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at the beginning when he says,

God, if you are with us, then

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why are the circumstances so bad?

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And it makes me think about when

Joseph was in prison and it kept

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saying that the Lord was with him.

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But God promises he doesn't have

to be afraid and that he's going to

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have victory because God is with him.

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and then he calls him Yahweh

Shalom, and it's true.

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He is our peace.

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It is a common phrase in Christianity

to say that we're setting up fleeces,

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and this story is where that comes from.

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However, we have to be very careful

that we don't take these stories from

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scripture and think that they're setting

a precedent for us to follow as believers.

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There was an amazing godly preacher

named Fadi Baam who went to be

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with the Lord recently, and I'll

never forget hearing him preach.

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There's a phrase that stuck with

me ever since, when he said,

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narrative is not normative.

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when we're reading a story

or a narrative in scripture,

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we're not necessarily intended to repeat.

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What the character did.

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We have to look at the greater context.

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Here we see that Gideon is very aware

that he's showing a lack of faith.

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He keeps saying, Lord,

please don't be angry.

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God is patient with him.

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But it's not an example for us to follow.

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Now that we have the whole council of

God's word, we have so many principles

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to guide us, and we're also called.

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To seek out the wisdom of

other Godly people around us

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because he's a God of peace and of order.

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He does give us clarity

as we press into him.

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I'm not saying it's easy, but I

do think that God uses all of the

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confusion of life to draw us near

to him if he were just gonna give

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us these good luck charms and signs.

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All the time, we wouldn't

have to seek him so much.

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So the next time that we feel confused

and like we're praying about the same

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thing over and over, maybe we could

think about it a little bit differently

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and say, thank you, Lord, for another

opportunity to come into your presence.

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Thank you that I need you so desperately.

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And with that, let's pray.

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Heavenly Father.

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We rejoice that you are a God

that is so patient with us.

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we're convicted about the many times

where we've doubted been fearful and

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needed confirmation and affirmation.

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Even when you've already provided

direction, we ask that you would help

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us to walk in righteousness and that

we would know what that looks like

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because we've been dwelling with you.

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Help us to be transformed by

the reality that you are Yahweh.

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Shalom, the Lord, our peace.

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May those not just be words

we say, but may our kids see

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that your peace reigns in us.

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No matter how frustrating life gets,

how many interruptions come, or

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hats we have to wear, that there

would be a banner of peace over us.

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Thank you, Jesus, for this glimpse of

you and your presence, and thank you

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that you gave up the glory of heaven to

be our savior as your spirit clothed

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Gideon, I pray that we would put on your

spirit and that all those we encounter

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would sense the hope that you bring.

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Lord Jesus, we look forward to the

day when every knee will bow and every

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tongue confess that you are Lord.

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In your name we pray, amen.