Believing False Stories About Ourselves: Gideon and Self-Brain Surgery

Good morning, my friend. I hope you're doing well. It is Tuesday.

Actually it's Sunday, but you're going to hear this on Tuesday.

It's Tuesdays with Tata. We are back.

He's been in Texas for a few weeks, and we had, I think, probably my favorite episode

of Tuesdays with Tata ever.

This is the 87th new episode of Tuesdays with Tata, and it is a barn burner.

Get yourself a Bible, go to Judges chapter 6 and 7.

We're gonna talk about Gideon today and what we can learn about self-brain surgery

and how Gideon changed his mind.

There's all kinds of interesting stuff in here about brain science related to how we think of ourselves

versus how God thinks of us and why we tend, even when God comes out and tells us who he thinks we are,

to still believe the things that we've accepted about ourselves.

Tata gives us some great insight into Gideon and this story from Judges is just a great example

of self-brain surgery in the Bible because you can't change your life until you change your mind.

And that means, my friend, that there's only one question.

Hey, are you ready to change your life? If the answer is yes, there's only one rule.

You have to change your mind first.

And my friend, there's a place where the neuroscience of how your mind works smashes together with faith,

and everything starts to make sense. Are you ready to change your life?

Well, this is the place, Self-Brain Surgery School.

I'm Dr. Lee Warren, and this is where we go deep into how we're wired.

Take control of our thinking and find real hope.

This is where we learn to become healthier, feel better, and be happier.

This is where we leave the past behind and transform our minds.

This is where we start today. Are you ready?

This is your podcast. This is your place. This is your time, my friend. Let's get after it.

Music.

Friend we're back it's Sunday afternoon out here on the river on an incredibly windy day,

And I am sitting here with my main man tata because it's Tuesdays with tata. Welcome back dad

Thank you. Good to be here with you had a little journey to texas. Did we did? Yes,

And it's uh, it's getting to be unusually tiring going down there because it's been the heat has been so extreme

It has been a no rain,

Really hot and dry summer. We're praying for rain for all those folks that need it and including the farmers here in Nebraska and,

We had a little bit of trauma while you were gone. Didn't we dad we did we did,

Yeah, we lost our boys Harvey and Lewis. I'm sure you've heard us talk about that by now friend.

But it's three Sundays ago today that Harvey and Lewis were killed and One last epic battle with the coyotes. Oh, yes,

Well, and here, and I'm staring because I'm staring out the riverbank because about this

time of day, they would be running up and down the riverbank.

Yeah. Checking. Yep. And inevitably they would want to come in or go out a few times during recording this episode.

So, yes. So we're thinking of them today and we're so grateful.

You can't even imagine how many cards and flower bouquets and emails we got.

We're so grateful for all of you who expressed your concern and love for Harvey and Lewis.

And for being aware of our time of, it really feels like grief, doesn't it?

It's funny. It does, yes, yes, that's been my prayer, to be with us in this time of grief.

I never really understood that, because growing up we had outside dogs,

we weren't really a dog family, and we had outside dogs, and of course you cared about them,

but they weren't really part of your family.

And either Lisa and I both really never had pets that were inside dogs until Harvey and Lewis.

And we had one dog earlier in our marriage that was, you remember Piggy, the obese pug.

But Piggy was older and sicker when we got him, so it wasn't like he grew up with us.

And so Harvey and Lewis really were, they were part of the family, weren't they, Dad?

Absolutely, yeah, they were almost like children.

Yeah, they acted like children sometimes. Or people with head injuries, maybe.

They had their own personalities.

Well, but someone said it a long time ago and that's where I've been living, thanks,

for the memories. Absolutely.

And so the memories have been so good and I'm sitting here looking across the room and,

first thing I see is an orange ball. We haven't been able to...

To make ourselves get rid of all of their toys. And of course, Lewis was Harvey would would want to go grab

a the biggest stick he could find and run around the yard with it.

Lewis always had a ball and he's got him. I'm sure we'll find him buried for the rest of our lives out here.

We'll find buried toys and sticks.

I'm certain of that. Yeah. Anyway. Well, we just wanted to have a moment to reminisce with you

because they were such a big part of Tuesdays with Tata.

And we know that you care. and we just wanted to kind of close that loop with you today since it's been a little bit since dad was on the show

Here with us and he's back and we're after it. And what are we going to talk about today, Tom?

Well, I will talk about what happened to Gideon in Judges 6. That's a good story,

But but to understand what was going on.

It profound it is profound Profounding to think about it because you open the chapter the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of God

Yeah, and he gave him over to the hand of the million million nights. Yeah for seven years and,

It was it was so bad,

That the million nights and the Amlekites and the people from the east,

They were so numerous. You couldn't count them yeah, and when and they would come during planting time and take everything that the,

People of Israel had and they were so bad at that some of the children of Israel were living in caves,

and living in dens and living in the high places in the mountains just to escape. And that's where

it was so horrible for them that they cried out to the Lord

and the Lord sent a prophet. And that prophet's not named, but the prophet recounted to the people what the Lord had

done. That He had rescued them from Egypt, rescued them from slavery,

and brought them to a land and defeated their enemies.

But they would not hear of it. That is so stunning to think about. The prophet said.

But you have not obeyed my voice. That's what the prophet told the people,

speaking for God. Remember that prophets were in the mouthpiece of God because they started out,

thus saith the Lord." This is what God is saying.

But they would have none of it and they would not obey Him.

And so the first place we find Gideon he's threshing wheat and he's in a wine press.

He's hiding. Yes. So that they don't steal the food. Yes. Because that's one of the things that they would do.

Because they said, in the account it said that the and the animals that belonged to the Midianites

and the Amalekites, and I don't know who the people were from the East, but they were so numerous

they couldn't be counted. Yeah.

You could not see the end of them. And so they came and took everything.

There was absolutely nothing in the country.

Wow. They took all of the produce, they took all of the stock,

they took all the cows, they took all the donkeys, took all the goats, sheep, and everything.

Wow.

And they had left the people destitute. And that's what's so strange that.

And when God heard them when they cried out to him They sent them a prophet and the prophet recounted what they had done, but they still would not repent and obey. Yeah,

Even though they were being treated as it and does that sound familiar? It does.

There's that's not in which sounds like us maybe us. Yeah, it's the same story over and over like we we cry out

Because things are bad and when we find out what God expects we keep crying out, but don't change

that's right. We just keep doing the same old thing.

And another thing that is so profound to think about is that the angel of the Lord said to Gideon

the Lord is with you, oh mighty man of

valor. The Lord is with you. But Gideon made a lot of excuses why he couldn't go,

and all he wanted to know was why was this happening what was happening to them? Why were they being punished?

And so you think about that as well, and I don't know, maybe it was legitimate. Maybe in his ignorance he did not know.

Maybe he had not received that information. So maybe it was totally out of his awareness. He starts out by telling that

his clan is the smallest one in Israel.

He is the most meaningless person in his household. point here not to miss that and we've been talking about it a lot on the

podcast lately about the understanding the way our brains will lie to us and

and label us and we've absorbed and accepted things that other people have told us, but it's interesting that the angel.

Tells Gideon how God sees him right off the bat. He shows up and says,

the Lord is with you, O mighty warrior, man of valor.

And then even that, I would imagine that if an angel showed up and told you who you were,

it should stick, but it doesn't.

And Gideon's so trapped in his own mindset that he says, pardon me, my Lord, this is verse 15,

but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the least in my family.

Yeah, that's right. So I'm unimportant. He has accepted a label.

It's just like when Moses made all those excuses when God was telling him,

you're gonna go save your people.

And he said, how can I stutter? Yeah, I stutter.

He didn't wanna go back, he was fearful.

And then the angel went on and said to Gideon, and the Lord turned to him and said,

go in the might of your, and save Israel from the hand of Midian.

Did I not send you? And so the Lord is still being tolerant with him,

even as Gideon is objecting.

But Gideon finally is beginning to make amends. He's beginning to understand maybe.

Because he goes and prepares a special meal.

He fixes a meal of meat and bread and broth and he put the broth in a pot and he took it to the angel of the Lord

and offered the gift to him.

And the Lord said, here, put this meat and the bread on the rock and pour the broth over it.

And then the Lord set the rock on fire. Yeah, even though it was wet.

That was one of his favorite tricks in the Old Testament.

Go ahead and soak that offering in oxygen, burn it up anyway.

Keep putting water on it until there's nothing left.

But anyway, this conversation keeps going on And the Lord gives, the angel of the Lord gives Gideon another assignment, tells him

to go take his father's oxen, two of them, and pull down the altar of Baal, and a pole

of actresses that was there.

And offer the second bull. But even then, Gideon took some...

I can imagine, you look at this picture just a minute.

He did it at night. Now he took ten men with him though.

There's another understory here that's important, if you're not familiar.

The Asherah Pole and the Altar of Baal were being managed by Gideon's father.

And what that means is, so they were people who were supposed to worship the Lord,

but they had accepted and began to mingle with the...

This is important. So the people had begun to mingle with foreign gods and idol worship, and probably as a business,

Gideon's father was the guy in town who was in charge of the idol worship temple, and the Asherah Pole,

was not just some altar, it was where they had all kinds of pagan sacrifices and there was some sexual connotation to it.

This was an evil empire that probably was important financially to his family and may have been a source of embarrassment,

to some of his family as well because it would have been like, oh, Gideon's the guy whose

dad runs the brothel temple over there. You know, so

it's interesting that God said to Gideon, not only do I want you to go and save your people, but I also want you to fully commit because I would imagine

that taking two of your dad's bulls and tearing up your dad's place of business

was sort of an all-in moment. Oh yes, absolutely. There's no going back from

that. No. Well, and but that as that story continues though you see that the

Yidin's father somewhat redeemed himself.

It's amazing to read that, because the next morning, the people in the village there, in the city,

they saw that the altar had been destroyed and a sacrifice had been made on it,

and they went to, after they searched and found out that it was Gideon,

they went to Gideon's father. That's right.

And they wanted Gideon so they could kill him.

And Gideon's father said, well, If Baal has problems, let Baal speak,

let Baal take care of his altar.

That's right. And nothing happened.

And that's the end of that story. That's what was so amazing to me is because that was a huge event.

Yeah. One, Gideon has already been told by the angel of the Lord that he is a mighty man of valor and that he is with him

and he's gonna lead him to save Israel.

Yeah.

That's huge. It's incredible. But then, even after all this has happened,

Gideon still wants a sign.

That's right.

He's still not fully convinced that God's really gonna do it.

Apparently not, because, and then that's when he talks about the fleece,

and if memory serves me correct, the first test is the fleece being laid on the ground,

and that the dew would be on the ground, not on the fleece.

Or no, on the fleece. On the fleece and not on the ground. Not on the ground.

The first test, yeah. Then the next test would be that the fleece would be on the ground, but the ground would

be had dew on it, but the fleece was dry.

That's right.

And so then Gideon became convinced.

Why? Why did it take so long to convince him?

Because of human frailty and fear and stories that we accepted?

Maybe. That's my only conclusion.

But it also points out for me that God is willing, when He decides He's going to use

somebody, He's going to use them. That's right.

He's going to use them to do His work. And He's patient with us. He is.

And the question though remains, are we patient with ourselves?

That's right. And do we believe the lies that we've accepted about ourselves,

more than we believe God's words for our lives?

Yeah, absolutely. And how often is the outcome that we're getting because we're listening to

other people or our own experience, our own fear, and not God's voice?

So what that says to me, there's hope for all of us.

There is.

There's hope. God is patient and kind and he sees you more clearly than you could ever see yourself.

And even when you don't get it, he's willing to give you a little time to come to it. That's right.

And so then apparently, after he finally accepts it, or he has an aha moment,

and said, okay, this is God.

This is God talking to me.

I better pay attention.

So he assembles an army.

And I'm trying to say I'm trying to remember that army was very large.

And but God said the angel of the Lord said to him you can't take this army and go and defeat them because,

The children of Israel says look what we did. That's right. You have too many you have too many and so,

Angel of the Lord said again, okay,

Tell tell those that are fearful to go home,

and 20,000, 22,000 of them did.

And so that left 10,000.

But now listen to this though, the Lord is still talking to Gideon, the Lord.

So and the angel of the Lord, and what I understand that to be is that's Jesus talking to him.

Now is God talking to him as well? don't know. But anyway, the angel of the Lord said, you still have too many. He had,

about 10,000 men left. So that's when he said, let them go down and

drink out of the stream. And I'll tell you who can stay and who has to go. Yeah. And so he got finally got down to 300.

As opposed to the Lord's army. 20,000. Yeah. That's right. And Gideon gave them.

Think of how Gideon has changed in all of this when he finally got it.

He gave the men the pots and the torches and bugles.

Yeah. He did that.

God provided, and he worked with God to accomplish that mission.

That's right. But he was still fearful to attack him.

And so and so the angel of the Lord, no doubt, knew his heart said,

well, if you're still fearful, take your servant and go down to the camp and listen in.

And so he did. And apparently this was about the middle of the night.

Yeah. And he heard two men talking.

Yeah. And one had had a dream and the other was explaining it.

And the other was the one of the men that explained the dream used Gideon's name and called Gideon the man of God.

So, look how this has all changed. Once Gideon said, okay, I get it.

He followed God's instructions and he did what Jesus said to do, and then all of a sudden he became important

in that whole process.

He accepted the mission. He's accepted his assignment.

That's right. He's finally agreeing with God about who he is.

Yeah, that's right. And all of a sudden, he's finding success.

And as we sit here at this point in time, and we say, how long did it take Gideon

to come to this conclusion?

I would have arrived at that conclusion much earlier.

Yeah. But would I? Would I?

It's easy to say, sitting here, that we would. would. That's right.

But would we? We see throughout the whole Bible people not stepping up to the assignment

when it's even when it's crystal clear. Well look what he's, look what he was facing.

Yeah. The enemy could not be counted. That's right. And he's going to go with 300 guys,

of bugles and bowls and pots and torches. Yeah.

Doubt. It's a daunting thing, but the question for us, I guess, is we have a whole Bible

full of examples of the fact that when God's on your side, Paul said it plain in Romans,

if God is for us, who can be against us? That's right.

God tells you who you are. In fact, if you have any doubt of what God thinks about you,

He died for you. He stretched Himself out and allowed Himself to be sacrificed for your

your sins and my sins, and that ought to tell us how He values us and what He thinks of us.

And so when He puts a label on you that's better than the one that you put on yourself,

why don't we accept it?

And I've thought about that so many times, and you mentioned Moses, and he's the first one.

He sees a bush that's burning but is not consumed.

And he has a voice comes out of the bush. Take your shoes off man. You're standing on a holy ground. Yeah first thing,

That's right But then he he wants to give it he gives he goes through that whole litany of all those excuses of why he can't do,

what God is wanting him to do but,

So the question that I have about all of it all of this and all of that that whole scenario, both sides of everything we looked at. What does this say about God?

I know, I get what it says about us. When God picks us, we better go. That's right.

But what does it say at the end of the day? What does it really say about God?

He is patient and He is long-suffering.

Yeah.

What does that look like? Patient and long-suffering, and He is merciful with us. That's right.

That's His general character. Even Jesus, when He described Himself,

He said, I am gentle and lowly in heart.

The Bible, the Old Testament says I am patient and full of compassion.

Yes.

And we have this modern idea that He's tempestuous and judge and wants to smite us and all that,

but that's not who he is.

Well, and probably some of that is, that's in our culture too,

that if we don't do what God says, he's gonna, he's gonna hit us, he's gonna hammer us.

He's gonna do something to us that, because we're rebellious.

But the examples that God gives us throughout the Old Testament,

and recall the purpose of all of those examples was to show how God treated his people.

Yeah. How God dealt with his people.

And remembering that Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever,

that means that's still how he deals with his people today. And probably,

that's the part of it that's almost incomprehensible. We cannot understand that.

And I don't know if it's a problem of understanding or acceptance. Yeah.

I think it's both. But I think it's weighted on the side of acceptance.

That we just can't, we can't really believe it. And so we don't accept it.

Yeah. The children of Israel, they would go along, as long as things were just fine,

and they would worship God, and they would call on God's name.

Yeah. But when things didn't go well, they went right back to sin.

They started worshipping idols. Yeah.

And even God himself told Moses once that these people are stiff-necked and uncircumcised and

they're hard-headed and I'm going to just kill them all. And Moses talked him out of it.

Well, the original translation of the Hebrew word is that when Moses pleaded the case for

for the children of Israel, that it softened God's face.

That's right.

Now, how do they know that? Because no one's ever seen God's face. That's right.

Well, anyway, that's full of all kinds of questions. Absolutely. And it's a mystery.

It is. But all we have to do is say yes.

That's right.

It's interesting that God could, you always wonder why God didn't just smite the Midianites,

why he didn't strike them down, why he even makes us fight these battles, right?

Because he could do it without the war having to take place.

And he specifically wants Gideon to take an army that's of insufficient size for the task.

Without armament. Right, so that means that he wants it to be obvious that they're winning because he's on their side

and because he's allowing them to win.

And I'm reading a book now by Ben Stewart called Rest and War, and he made this point about how,

we wonder, we keep asking God why there's so much struggle and why there's so much

pain and why we have to keep fighting and why we're tired of being so tired.

And he says, you ever watch one of those war movies like Saving Private Ryan and,

notice there's there's two kinds of people on the battlefield. There's people

who seem calm and not stressed, they're staying still, they're not Bye.

Overly taxed for the moment. And then there's people that seem running and straining

and stressing and fighting.

And the difference between those two is that the calm people are dead.

That everybody else is acting like they're under stress because they're still in the fight, but they're alive. That's right.

And God has said, this battle that we're in, this battle against spiritual forces

that's gonna end someday when I say it's time to end, you're in it and I'm equipping you for it.

And so the question isn't why do I have to keep fighting?

The question is, thank you that I'm still in the fight.

That's right.

And that's really what Gideon was, the situation here. Like God could have won that battle for them

without there even having to be a battle.

But instead, he puts his soldiers in the battle and makes Gideon understand exactly who he is

because sometimes our fight is what helps us understand who we are.

That's right.

Well, and also the struggle is us asking ourselves who we are.

That's right. trying to understand who we are.

Now the proverb says, if you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength?

Yeah. Well, and what's amazing, too, is that Gideon really didn't even have to fight him.

Those guys killed themselves. That's right. They slaughtered each other.

And then Gideon chased them.

And then he sent a call to all the other Israelites, and they joined him in the battle.

That's right. When he was winning. That's right.

And they wanted to make him a king, and he wouldn't do it. We tried.

And what's so sad, after his life ended, what did the children of Israel start doing?

Same thing that they were always doing. Worshiping idols and refusing to obey God. That's right.

It's a long story. The Old Testament is a long story that should teach us that people never really change

unless they let Jesus change them.

That's right. And that's why, when I read the Bible, I ask God to speak to me and help me understand,

make it clear to me so that I can understand it.

That's right.

And so when you look at this and you put yourself in that situation,

I try to put myself in Gideon's shoes.

What would I do? That's right. I mean, I can say that I wouldn't do that,

that I would obey. Yep.

But would you? You know we we always think that we would do better than the people in the stories

But I think that's one of the reasons that there are so many different stories. That's right

Well, look look look where we find Gideon to begin with that's right in a winepress hiding out winnowing wheat,

So it went to the millionaires wouldn't steal it from him.

Exactly You know I think I think this is a good moment to stop and say how valuable

Bible study is. There was a, I think we talked about it once before, but the

George Barna organization does a survey every year of people's attitudes and

and beliefs and how much they read the Bible and all of that.

Of people who identify as what he called Bible-believing Christians.

So they believe the Bible is real.

Of people in America who believe the Bible is real and attend church frequently,

only 8% of them read the Bible on a weekly basis.

8%, which means that we are not biblically literate. And here's the problem with that.

If you don't read the Bible for yourself, then all you know of it is what people tell you it is.

That's right, that's right.

And that means you've robbed yourself of the primary source of your knowledge

and power of who you are in Christ and who he is.

And you can begin then to accept culture ideas, cultural ideas about who God is.

And then you can start basically believing a whole lot of things that aren't actually true.

That's right. If you don't know the story.

That's why it's so immensely valuable. Go back into the Old Testament, friend,

and read Judges six and seven and learn about Gideon and see yourself in the story, and put yourself,

Richard Foster did that beautiful thing, I learned from him when we had him on the show,

and he said, when you read something.

Imagine yourself as one of the characters in the story, and look at it from different ways,

like you were playing different parts, and let that scripture speak to you,

what would I do, like you just said, if I was Gideon, what would I do if I were the Midianites,

but what would I do if I was Gideon's dad, or those people that saw the Asherah pole being torn down,

yourself in the story and read it enough times that it becomes second nature to you to understand

what God really did there. That's right. And because understanding and reading this book

right here, this is God talking to us. That's right. And when we pray, it's us talking to God.

That's right. So we do, we're able to talk with him. That's right.

Yeah, I just read Pete Griggs book and he's gonna be on the show in December, by the way, Pete Griggs book,

Hearing God a simple guide for normal people So he says his whole premise is how do we hear God and people everybody wants God to show up and speak to him?

That's right. You know in the cloud and in the fire and he says the most the most,

Simple way the most the most consistent way to hear God is to read his word,

That's right, because Jesus sounds Jesus is what God sounds like. Oh, yeah And that, for us, we are, and it was Elijah.

And remember, he was standing, and God told him, stand on the mountain, and we'll pass by.

And he came, and it had a storm. It was so violent that the rocks were broken.

Can you imagine the noise level? And then there was a fire.

Yeah, and an earthquake. But God is not in any of those.

And then a small, still voice came. And that's where he was. That's right.

He's a gentleman. And that's why, honestly, we talk a lot about prayer and meditation,

and we talk about getting your mind under control, and all of that, and the primary difference

between Eastern metaphysical self-help meditation that everybody's so hot on today,

and biblical meditation.

The primary difference is, Eastern meditation is about calming your mind so you don't hear anything.

And biblical meditation is about calming your mind so you can hear God. That's right.

And think about, think about what happened. Gideon starts out, and God, the angel of the Lord

is talking to him, telling him who he is. And Gideon is telling the angel of the Lord, well, I am not.

That's right. But at the end of the day, what happens to Gideon?

He becomes who God said he was. That's right.

He became a hero. That's right.

And he obeyed. Yeah. And that's the difference. That's right.

So maybe that's the part that God is after.

Yeah.

The obedience. Yeah. God has a better story about your life than you do.

He has a better label for you than you do. He has a better outcome planned for you than you do.

And your only job is to say yes. That's right.

That's all you have to do. That's our only task, say yes.

And because God himself said, I am with you, I will be with you. That's right.

And then what's so amazing also is that the angel of the Lord said to Gideon,

didn't I tell you that I am with you?

Yeah.

Didn't I tell you? Yeah. God has already told us.

Not only that God has showed us. Yeah, he has demonstrated his love for us.

He because of the he's the foot that's the it's the fulfillment of John 3 16,

That's right where God so loved the world. He sent his only begotten Son,

Sent him that's right and Jesus died. It came came in through his death on a cross God brought us back

back from sin, when we had no hope.

That's right. We've been redeemed. Try it.

I've got a couple of things from the prayer wall that I think would be a good time to pivot to

because we're talking about the hopelessness that you can feel when you don't believe that God is for you.

And the hope found in Gideon's story to learn that He is for us.

That's right. He's for us and He has a plan for you. He's got a story for you.

He's got a label, a name for you.

It's better than the one that you've accepted. Listen to some of these prayers, Tata.

This one's anonymous. Please pray for me. I know God has a good plan for my life.

I look back and see all the ways he has rescued me in the past.

That's the memory part of hope.

But, she says, or he or she, but I'm having a hard time trusting that he will do it again.

I feel unworthy and less resilient than I was in the past. I need hope.

This one says, my family is torn apart by my son's alcoholism.

Please pray for healing and the Holy Spirit's guidance in this situation.

This one says, prayers please for my son who is having many difficulties.

His marriage is a mess, he's controlling mentally and emotionally abusive to his wife and children.

He and his wife are Christians, they attend church. Pray that he receives serious divine intervention,

conviction, and counseling.

This one, prayer for physical healing for Kevin from ulcerative colitis.

He's in medical school and he's struggling with this physical disease.

Then Nicole, dealing with a financial nightmare that I had been battling for years.

I've tried every avenue I can think of with no relief.

I have prayed and done what I can spiritually, but the toll has been great, and I'm not even sure

I have any form of belief in anything anymore.

Any prayers are appreciated, even though I'm not confident he will ever be willing to assist me.

This is heavy, this is hard stuff, Tata, and the people need hope.

And so maybe it would be time to pray for these folks and then just kind of lead us in.

How can we, Tata, how can we learn to believe what God has to say about us?

To believe that He really can do and will do what He says He wants to do for us?

Well, I heard one person say, I cannot, I can't trust what,

I don't think I can trust that God will do it again,

and I don't have hope that He will.

And maybe that's a problem.

Because they see clearly what God has done in their lives. But they don't have hope or trust

that God's gonna do it again. That's right.

And that's a sad circumstance. It is.

That's a hard place to be. It is a hard place to be.

Because it leaves you with no hope. That's right.

So let's pray for that. Absolutely. That pivot out of hopelessness and towards hope.

Absolutely. Pray for us, Tata.

Oh, Father, we thank you for this day that you have made and we rejoice in it.

We are so thankful that you have blessed us. Amen.

We are thankful for all of our blessings, Father. We're thankful for our food, clothing, and shelter.

We're blessed in abundance. We have more than we need.

We are blessed and highly favored. We are blessed beyond measure.

Amen. being mindful of us, watching over us, protecting us from harm, especially the little ones.

Thank you, Father. Thank you for caring about us. Thank you for loving us.

Oh, and Father, please forgive us of our sins and hear our prayer.

Father, we look at some of the people that have written prayer requests and that are on the prayer wall,

and they're struggling in such hard places.

And Father, we ask you to bless them with strength.

We ask you to bless them with endurance. We ask you to bless them with peace,

and bless them with mercy.

Help them, Father, make a way for them. And some of them have already

by their own admission given up. They've lost all,

hope. Restore that, renew that.

You can do that. We know that you can do that.

We trust you, we have confidence in you. And we ask you to demonstrate your mighty power in our presence for your glory, not ours.

Thank you for all of the people that praying for all of these people, we ask you to bless them as well.

Father, for these that are struggling and that have lost hope and lost trust,

and no longer think that you're able or willing to help them in their situation, we demonstrate to them that you can and you will

and you do. Help them, Father.

Bless them. Father, we wait on you because we have no place left to go, Father.

Trust in you, we have confidence in you. And it's so easy for us sometimes to say,

well this is what I would do, or what I wouldn't do, and we don't know that. We,

We know that we hear from Satan every moment that our eyes are open.

And every moment that we have breath. And we know that if we rebuke Him in Jesus' name that He will flee from us.

Yes. And we do that.

So Father, we pray that You would bless all of us with trust in You and confidence in You and hope in You.

You are our salvation. You are the only place that we can go.

And so we ask You to come now.

Please come now and bless us, we ask you in the sweet and precious name of Jesus Christ,

our Lord and Savior, your Son and our Redeemer. Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Ta-Ta. This story of Gideon in Judges 6 and 7 is a great example of the,

kind of self-brain surgery that we're talking about on the podcast all the time here. This,

this idea that God had an identity,

that he thought of when he thought of Gideon.

Deliverer, warrior, mighty man of valor, somebody who's gonna rescue his people,

somebody who can stand up to his dad, somebody who can fight back against idolatry.

That's what God saw when he looked at Gideon.

Gideon was living in a narrative that he was small and weak and wasn't much of anything to be looked at

or accounted for that he couldn't,

didn't have ability or didn't have skill and so much so that he was hiding in a wine press

to just try to find something to eat,

make something to eat that wouldn't be stolen by the pillaging army.

So I think it's a perfect example of before Gideon could become who God knew he was,

he had to change his mind. That's right.

And he did it by accepting God's story for his life instead of his own.

But that did not preclude Gideon from trying the Lord. No.

And it did not preclude the Lord letting him do it. That's right.

And that's incredibly important, friend. Like, you have to come to the place

where you can see yourself through God's eyes, but the path to that place can often involve several steps.

Really, God? Are you sure, God?

Can you give me some proof, God? Give me a sign, God?

And this story, you're right. It's such a kind, patient example of God's character,

of how he doesn't give up on us and he doesn't get frustrated with us and he gives us time and space

to become who he knows we are. That's right.

It's a beautiful story. Thank you for taking us through it today, Tata.

Well, it's something that, and I feel inadequate to even explain it

because I don't know how many times I've read it

and studied it and I still don't get all of it.

There's so many nuances and so many little working pieces to the whole narrative.

Amen. Friend, go spend some time in it this week. It's a great place to say, how can I change my mind to see myself like God sees me?

That's right. And if we're going to do that, Tytle, when should we start?

Start today. Hey, thanks for listening.

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