Deborah • Face Trouble with Courage and Peace

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Deborah-face trouble with courage and peace-fear to faith blog
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Do you feel sometimes that you are just spinning like a top and nothing will stop the spinning? Where do you get the courage to keep going and not give into fear? In our blog series so far, you have learned 4 truths to apply faith to fear and a biblical process to apply faith to any fear. From Sarah, you learned that God is bigger than all of your weaknesses.In the last blog, you learned from the life of Rahab that God is good all the time. You can trust His choice of addressing your pain. This is blog #6 in the “Fear to Faith” series. In this post, we will consider how to face trouble with courage and peace as Deborah and Jael did.

Listen to this blog in a similar podcast from the Everyday Women, Ever-Faithful God Bible Study.

Learning from Deborah and Jael

Do you feel sometimes that you are just spinning like a top and nothing will stop the spinning? Life is going well. You are doing your job faithfully, whatever it is. Then you get blindsided. World starts spinning. It does not seem like it will ever stop. Where do you go to find security when life hits like that? Where do you get the courage to keep going?

Fear is a normal human emotion designed by God to alert us to danger so that we will take action against it.

In Judges 4 and 5, you can read about two women named Deborah and Jael. Both of them experienced such spinning as they faced certain attack from a vast army led by a bad dude named Sisera. How did they respond?

Deborah’s response to fear

The threat of danger came from a warlord to Israel’s north and his army led by the general Sisera. Deborah was leading Israel at the time as one of its judges. God led her to do what He wanted to do to face the danger. And she obeyed Him, leading others to do the same, and not give way to fear.

[Deborah] sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor. I will lead Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’” Barak said to her, “If you go with me, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.” “Certainly I will go with you,” said Deborah. “But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours, for the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.” So Deborah went with Barak to Kedesh. (Judges 4:6-9)

God lured the enemy army into a valley, sent a heavy rainstorm which prevented their chariots from moving freely, and gave them into the hands of the Israelite army for the victory. Deborah and Barak sang a song of praise to God for His deliverance from the danger threatening them.

Jael’s response to fear

Jael knew that Sisera was an enemy to her people. As Sisera escaped from the battle where his army was being defeated, Jael lured him into her tent, gave him warm milk to make him sleepy, then killed him. She did not hesitate to use her household tools to defeat the enemy and save her people.

Just then Barak came by in pursuit of Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him. “Come,” she said, “I will show you the man you’re looking for.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera… (Judges 4:22)

Both Deborah and Jael knew that God was with His people. God did not give them easy choices to make, ones that would have made their lives much more comfortable. Deborah chose to use the gifts God gave her to glorify Him and to bolster Barak’s courage and reputation. Jael took great risks and confirmed her people’s allegiance to the tribe of Israel by her actions. And they both chose to trust God rather than submit to fear. God rewarded their faith with victory.

Correlation to today

Substitute current situations and names from your life. The army could be cancer, debt, job loss, or natural disaster. The name could be a difficult coworker, cheating spouse, or hateful family member. The two women in this story came from a different status in life. But both had to face the struggle and threat. Both had to decide whom to trust as they did so.

The Bible teaches this truth:

We can face life’s realities with courage and peace by entrusting ourselves and our loved ones to a God who loves us dearly.

I believe that you and I can learn to do just that. How do we learn it? We can learn it by watching and listening to Jesus.

Storms of Life Hit

The storm on the Sea of Galilee

In Mark chapter 5, you will find a familiar story. The disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat. Normal life experience. They were working the sails and oars. Jesus was sleeping in the back of the boat.

Suddenly, a fierce storm hit. Such storms were common on the Sea of Galilee because it was situated in a basin surrounded by mountains. Every storm with high winds and waves was a real threat to those who were in boats. So, when the disciples realized what was happening, they got afraid. Now, at least 4 of them were skilled fishermen. This was not the first time they experienced this. Had they always panicked? Somehow through using their own skills, we know they had managed to get safely to the shore because they were alive here.

Jesus was resting. They wake Him up. Jesus asks them: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Basically, He is asking: “Why are you cringing in fear? You know who I am. I am with you. I said we were going to the other side. Why did not you believe me? All you could see was your own inadequacy, not God’s strength to get you through it.” Do you recognize that in your life?

Storms of life today

Storms of life hit every day. To even the most faithful Christians. This storm was not the disciples’ fault. It was part of life for them. Every one of us must deal with disappointments, problems, and tragedies in life. Was there real danger? Yes. Remember we said that fear is a gift of God that alerts us to the presence of danger. We are supposed to act on it by either fleeing from the danger or facing it head on. Both choices are taking action against the fear. And that is a good thing.

Where I get into trouble is when I let my imagination run wild, give in to despair, and doubt God’s goodness. That is what happened to the disciples in the boat with Jesus. They tell Jesus, “Don’t you care if we drown?” Isn’t that often our emotion when trouble hits? God, don’t you care? That pessimism comes from our view of trouble. We can have 2 views: 1) the pagan view and 2) the biblical view.

The pagan, non-biblical view of trouble

This is the world’s view of trouble. “When things go well, the gods are happy with us. When things go wrong, the gods are angry with us.” So, the goal of life is to stay on the good side of the gods so bad things will not happen. Do you think this way?

Even Christians get caught up into this kind of thinking. We try to interpret events, especially tragedies, as signs of God’s anger or punishment: “Why did this happen?” “What does it mean?” “What is God trying to tell me?” Or we say this: “If I am a good Christian, have enough faith, or am spiritual enough, I can expect from God personal peace, prosperity, and health. Bad things will not happen to me.”

Look at the disciples. Now that they were with Jesus, what do you think was their expectation? No more storms on the Sea of Galilee? That is like expecting no more hail storms in North Texas or hurricanes along the Gulf Coast. That is not gonna happen!

When they asked, “Don’t you care if we drown?” Their real questions were, “Don’t you love us enough? What have we done to make you not care?” They doubted His love and goodness. That is what we often do when we are faced with life’s realities. That is the worldly view of trouble.

We need to replace that thinking with…

The godly, biblical View of trouble

Here are a few facts to help you stop looking at troubles from the world’s point of view.

Fact #1:

We live in a fallen, evil, cursed world. War zone. Some places literally a war zone. We are in the last days of this broken old creation. It is not gonna get fixed until Jesus returns. In that until time, while we are waiting, you and I have the life of the new creation on the inside through the Holy Spirit. But at the same time, we are living in a body and world of the old, fallen creation. The Bible says this world is groaning because of its corruption. Some of our troubles are from that. Illnesses, debilitating injuries, earthquakes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters. We live in a corrupted world.

Fact #2:

God has chosen from the beginning to give all humans the freedom to act. Some trouble comes from our own idiotic behavior. We make bad decisions then have to deal with the consequences. I have been there. They may be hard but God lets us experience consequences to show us why we need Him more and how ugly sin really is.

Sometimes we must live through the consequences of someone else’s bad decisions. Through no fault of our own. I know listening to me now are victims of theft, rape, childhood abuse, rejection by a spouse or very painful things others have done to you. That is when we are tempted to ask the questions: “Why does God let people do evil? Why doesn’t He stop it if He is capable of doing that?”

The true answer is that He does stop evil all the time. God’s Spirit stops more evil on this earth than we will ever know. Every day He is stopping evil. He is called the restrainer of evil in 2 Thessalonians. Would you like to know what this world will look like when the Holy Spirit is not restraining evil any longer? Go and read Revelation chapters 5-19. We are not there yet so we know He is restraining it.

But He does not stop all evil now because that would mean taking away ALL human freedom. Do you want that? The thing that the Bible teaches is that God takes our freedom and responsibility far more seriously than we do. That is a gift He gave us.

Humans demand their freedom to do what they want to do. Then when something bad happens, they blame God for letting it happen. Illogical, isn’t it?

We do not have to have an answer for all bad things happening. In this world, all may not turn out well. No matter how hard we try to fix it. But when we are with Christ, we will have the whole story. Fact #2: God has given all humans the freedom to act.

Fact #3:

Our enemy, Satan, is real and has influence on our natural world and the people in it. The devil entices people to rebel against God, and he can cause bad things to happen.

Fact #4:

God is great and powerful. He will one day fix this broken world. Yay! That is a promise to us. It will happen in our future.

In the meantime, problems and troubles in life are normal, not abnormal. Jesus told that to us in John chapter 16. We should expect trouble. People in the past may have understood better that trouble was a part of life. Our generation is surprised by it.

Women in general have a problem with this. We are created with a need for security and stability so we aim to control our environment to create that security for us and for those we love. Our western way of thinking is that we can fix it—whatever IT is. When we cannot fix it, we panic. And fear can bring out the worst in us, especially in our uncertain world filled with the threat of terrorism…and germs.

Your Choices When Life hits

Dear reader, control is an illusion. We can only control our own behavior and thinking. So, stop that bad thinking that God is mad at you when trouble hits and start thinking with a Biblical mind. God is good. In His goodness, He allows some not-so-good things into our lives.

Our choice is not whether we will have trouble. Our choices are what kind of preparation we will make and what kind of response we will choose in facing life’s realities when they hit us.

The preparation is filling your mind with truth from God’s Word. Believing that God is good all the time and that He loves you. Truths clearly stated in Scripture. God never withdraws His love from you. That frees you to love Him back. It frees you to trust him and to obey Him. It frees you to use all of your resources to serve Him even while living in a hostile war zone.

Our four truths are resources for you to use:

  1. God loves you.
  2. He knows what is going on in your life.
  3. He can do something about it.
  4. You can trust His goodness in whatever He chooses to do!

Right thinking may not make the trouble go away or make life easy again. But you will be better able to walk forward with the courage and peace to face whatever hits. That is how you walk from fear to faith.

In the next post, we will learn from Naomi and Ruth that life should not be lived alone.

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with His faithfulness, so you will choose to trust Him with every fear.

All of the above information is covered in the Everyday Women, Ever-Faithful God Bible Study or the shorter The Walk from Fear to Faith Bible Study.

Enjoy reading these other articles related to the gospel of Mark:

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AI was not used to generate this post.

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