That is completely unreasonable!

At various times, major problems have crept into my life for which I had no immediate answers. No amount of study, reflection, or effort seemed to change those situations. To all appearances, as time passed they went from bad to worse! I would like to be able to report that I was always a 'mighty man of valor!' In reality, I sometimes found myself fearful. 20 years ago, I went for more than a year awakening in the early morning hours and unable to go back to sleep night after night.  

Thankfully, the experience of God's faithfulness has built a deeper faith that allows me to rest in Him, but I still have days when I grow anxious about challenges for which He has not revealed His plan, until I remember His amazing ways.

Times were tough. The Israelites were demoralized, hiding in the hills from their enemies who regularly came and stole their livestock and grain stores. "So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help." (Judges 6:6, NLT) God found a man named Gideon, a farmer who was just trying to eke out a living. We get a clue about his fear from this: "Gideon was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites." (Judges 6:11, NLT) This fearful man was the one chosen to lead the people to victory!

It was to be a strange victory. The Lord was completely unreasonable. After Gideon raised an army of 30,000 God came with this apparently ridiculous directive: "You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, 'Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.' " So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained." (Judges 7:2-3, NIV) Overnight, he sent two-thirds of his force home. Now, he was ready for war. No, God would be even more unreasonable. "The Lord said to Gideon, "There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go; but if I say, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go." (Judges 7:4, NIV) In the end, Gideon went to battle with 300 men. Using a strange strategy, his army routed the superior force and won peace for Israel.

When we walk in step with the Spirit, we must be prepared for Him to be unreasonable, at least from our perspective. The critical issues are obedience and integrity.

Are we living authentically before the Lord so that we can hear His direction clearly?

That being true, we must obey.

Joshua must have felt silly leading the Israelite army around the walls of Jericho singing! The reasonable thing would have been to start a siege, to starve the city into submission, but the Lord had a different strategy.

Noah's project of building a major ship far from the sea was to all appearances a work of folly. God used it to save Noah and his family from disaster.

Nehemiah must have wondered how he could rebuild a major city that was in complete ruins with so few men, but he listened to the Spirit and did it against 'impossible' odds. In the course of his work he found himself the object of ridicule, but stayed obediently on course to the finish. 

Jesus was willing to go to the Cross. How could evil be defeated by allowing the death of the God's Son? What good could come from this spectacle of cruelty?
"The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hell-bent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It's written, I'll turn conventional wisdom on its head, I'll expose so-called experts as crackpots." (1 Corinthians 1:18-19, The Message) In obedient faith, we embrace the truth and "we preach Christ crucified ... Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." (1 Corinthians 1:23-25, NIV)

Here's a word from the Word. May it build faith and resolve in us as we seek the Lord.

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord.
"And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

"The rain and snow come down from the heavens
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.

It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
You will live in joy and peace.
The mountains and hills will burst into song,
and the trees of the field will clap their hands!"    

(Isaiah 55:8-12, NLT)