Have you ever been frozen in fear? Or maybe just so intimidated you couldn’t take the first, or next step? Sometimes it’s our need for more information, or maybe another look at “the plan” to gain more confidence before we dive in. For Israel’s military general, Barak, it was likely something like that. Whatever it was, he was stuck. He couldn’t move forward. Maybe it was the fact that his Canaanite opponent, Sisera had 900 chariots. Maybe it was the fact that Israel’s other enemy, the Philistines, controlled all the weapons – to such an extent that Israel didn’t even have any! Israel had to literally fight with their gardening tools (1 Sam. 13:19ff). Whatever it was – he was stuck.
God was gracious to Barak – rather than shaming him or yelling at him for his deer in the headlight moment – he kindly provided a source of confidence to urge him on. What was that source of confidence? A word from God? No – he already had that. It was the voice of Deborah, a woman who had heard the word of God and responded to the word of God. Barak heard the voice of God, but had not responded because he was stuck.
Before we criticize Barak – we should remember that he is listed in Hebrews 11 as someone that typifies great faith. Interesting, isn’t it? That he moved from fear to faith? In many ways, that’s our path too. We have much to fear in our lives these days – COVID, terrorism, financial collapse, sickness, and the list goes on and on. But our challenge is to move from fear to faith. And we do that by seeing the challenges of life through Deborah’s eyes, not through Barak’s eyes.
The trick is to look at the situation through Deborah’s eyes – the eyes of faith. She saw the same thing that Barak saw – but while Barak responded with fear and immobilization, Deborah responded with courage, conviction and clarity.
Pro Tip: The issue isn’t the thing in your life that is intimidating you – it’s the way you look at it.
If God has called you do go somewhere, to do something – GO! Don’t hesitate – Go with courage, conviction and the clarity that following Him provides. He is the one that has called you, He is the one that will sustain you. His power is perfected in weakness. He is faithful.