Lisa Bevere challenges us not to focus on the problems but the answers.
In Judges 5, we see that after 80 years of peace, the Israelites turned to idol worship and this gave way to 20 years of oppression. Deborah judged and prophesied during this incredibly difficult season of oppression.
The Israelites were frozen in fear.
The NKJV translation of Judges 5:7 says Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel.
Meanwhile, the NET translation says: Warriors were scarce; they were scarce in Israel.
And the MSG translation has this to say: Public roads were abandoned; travelers went by backroads. Warriors became fat and sloppy, no fight left in them.
Normal life as the Israelites knew it had completely stopped.
This kind of sounds like today, doesn’t it? Normal life was life before masks, social distancing, traveling with restrictions, sanitizing everything, toilet paper shortages, and being able to hug people. That’s what our lives used to look like. Now we’re cautious about everything and we live in unprecedented fear and anxiety.
By no means should we stop social distancing and wearing masks until it is safe to do so. But we don’t have to live our lives frozen in fear.
The second part of Judges 5:7 says that these things happened until Deborah became a Judge. Deborah, through the power of God, calmed peoples’ fear!
It’s human nature to focus on the problem and not the answer. But for revival to come into our world, there needs to be an awakening. We need to be awoken not to the problem, but to the Answer!
The Answer is Jesus!
Stream this full episode of Better Together here: Better Together - Season of Revival
INFO
Author
Published:
Aug 26, 2020 at 07:00 AM