The other morning God told me not to worship at the altar of worry. I had never thought of worrying in terms of being an altar at which one bowed down but it is.

“I need wisdom on that, what am I supposed to do?” I asked.

“You bring it down,” He answered.

That reminded me of the story of Gideon. I knew it was in Judges but when I opened the Bible it fell right to Judges 6 and there it was. Sometimes that happens!

God, as the Great Initiator, visited Gideon while he was threshing wheat in a hidden wine press instead of the more open threshing floor where he would have been quite visible to the enemy, the Midianites, who were stealing Israel’s provision. He called him a mighty man of valor and Gideon protested how little he was. Then God told him to go in the might he had and He would be with him, and that he would strike down his enemies. Gideon asked for a sign it was really God and prepared some food and put it outside on  a rock. The angel of the Lord touched it and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed it, then the angel vanished. That’s when Gideon knew it truly was God Who visited him. He was scared but God said, “peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.”

Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, “The Lord is Peace.”  Gideon was successful in all God called him to do after that. He brought down the altar of Baal the Israelites had erected and stopped the Midianite invasions. What a mindset change! God is doing that for all of us today too!

How about this from God’s heart today? Stop worshipping at the altar of worry! Bring that thing down! Instead, build a place within your heart and home where you meditate upon the words, “The Lord is Peace.”

Shalom Shalom

Kathi