Hidden HeroShembull

3. Fire Up the Future

Have you ever needed a change? Maybe a change from the usual, the mundane, or simply just a change in what you eat for breakfast?

Everyone needs change every now and again. Everyone also fears change. In fact, most people don’t really like change. Because when we want things around us to change, we must first change ourselves. And that’s uncomfortable. Here’s an obvious secret for you: when you want to go forward, you can’t keep looking backward. You can’t move forward when you’re being held back. In other words, when you want change, and desperately need it, you must make a few adjustments yourself.

Gideon quickly realized this shortly after discovering his true nature in God. The fuel for his future would be setting fire to his past. If he was going forward with what God was calling him towards, he had to burn the things that would pull him backward. In Gideon’s case, these things were old habits, family customs, and village idolatry. In our case, it might be addictions, procrastination, self-esteem, anxieties, or a variety of bad habits.

Gideon had to place the Asherah pole, the literal symbol of idolatry in his town, on God’s altar. God commanded him to physically place on the altar the things of his past that came between God and his people, between God and his family, and light it up. Initially, Gideon might have felt some turmoil. Some anxiety. But God stilled it with His Peace. Gideon might have had some fears, but God gave him boldness. He might have been uncertain, but with God’s help, he was able to come up with a sound strategy. And so, he went into the darkness, to set his stumbling block alight, and fuel the future!

What about you? Are you constantly missing out on what God calls you towards because you can’t let go of past experiences? As men, we won’t experience the changes we want until we make the changes we need. You won’t experience the intimacy you want with your wife until you stop fantasizing about other women. You won’t be as productive as you should be until you stop procrastinating. You will only start seeing a difference in relationships when you start intentionally investing in them. Only when you truly start striving towards holiness, will you experience the release of sin’s grip.

What’s also interesting about this passage is that it ends with Gideon undergoing a dramatic change in the sight of his relatives and townspeople. Initially, he was seen as the least in his father’s house (sound familiar to Kind David?). Now, he had made a new name for himself. A name endorsed by his own father’s backing. Almost as a transference of authority. When Gideon set fire to the false identities and false idols of his people, he suddenly became a force to be reckoned with. From zero to hero. From family least to family leader. Overnight.

When you stop sitting on the bench, you might become your family’s team captain. When you start shutting off the screens more often, you will be able to pick up the Word of God more powerfully. And like we’ll see with Gideon next, when you stop hiding in the holes of comfort, you can step up as a fearless leader to your friends and family.

Read Judges 6:19-32 and Reflect on the Following

1. What is there in your past that might be holding you back from reaching your full potential?

2. How have your past or present situations kept you from what God has in store for you?

3. How will you place these things on God’s altar to burn the past and fire up the future?

4. What do you need to pray about today?