Building a New Altar

Before Gideon was in the battle that made him famous in Sunday school, he first fought a battle over his own heart. Gideon saw himself as less than nothing, but God called him a “mighty man of valor,” and kept encouraging Gideon to see himself and his circumstances as God did.

As his thinking began to transform, Gideon found courage to destroy the altar of the Midianites, the enemy that had enslaved his people. The word “Midianite” means striving, contentious, not at rest. When Gideon tore down their work, he built a new altar in its place and named it, “God is peace.”

Today is a good day to tear down anything in your heart or mind trying to make you a slave to fear and endless striving, and build a new altar of rest in God’s love for you. You may want to start with this good thought: no one else has control over what you think and feel. You get to be all God says you are. And there’s even more good news: you’re not in control of anyone else’s thoughts and feelings, either. You get to love people without being responsible to fix them.

I hope you have a truly good day.

“God is with you, mighty warrior” (Judges 6:12b).