Do you feel that God has called you to an impossible task? Maybe the calling God has given you has been difficult or your not sure of the next step to take. Maybe God has given you a calling, but family and friends don’t believe in the calling. Maybe God has called you to a specific task, but right now you can’t see Him at work. Maybe you’ve given all you got, juggling all the demands on you, and your just plain exhausted. My friend, if this is you, then let me breathe Words of Life into both you and me. God wants you to know that He is with you. All He wants us to do is to keep going in the strength that we have knowing that He will give us exactly what we need for each moment and to keep being obedient to His call. Like He asked of Gideon, so He is asking you today… “Am I not sending you?”
In Judges 6, we find Israel once again being oppressed because of their continued return to worshipping false Gods. This time its the Midianites. But as Israel calls out to God, God raises up Gideon to be their next deliver and Gideon is faced with an impossible task. His first task is to tear down the altars of Baal and replace it with an altar to God. Then we find that he is to go and fight the Midianites, but God whittled down the number of Gideon’s army to only 300 men. It’s interesting to me that when the Lord appeared to Gideon, Gideon asked, “O my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about.” Gideon will see God at work when God uses only 300 men to defeat the Midianites. Are we not like Gideon? When we begin to question the call God gave us or we question God about how He is working in this call, we might say, “God where are you? Where are all the mighty works you did throughout the Bible?” We start looking for a sign or a confirmation.
Another interesting part of the conversation between Gideon and the Lord is that the Lord calls Gideon a “mighty man of valor.” The word “valor” is defined as, “great courage in the face of danger, especially in battle.” Yet what we see is an obedient Gideon, but he is obedient in the dark of night and he takes 10 of his father’s men – safety in numbers. Gideon does in fact tear down the Baal idol, but he does so in secrecy. Yet God saw a bravery in Gideon and the Lord’s greeting was to both encourage Gideon for the task God had for him and to help him realize this characteristic about himself. The task God has for you might be scary. It might seem ridiculous or impossible to others and so you work on it “behind the scenes” waiting for God to show up before you make the call public knowledge. My friend, if you did not have the skills and characteristics needed for the call, God wouldn’t have singled you out for the call. The simple fact is that only you were uniquely and wonderfully made with every skill, personality traits, character traits, and gifts needed to do the task God has called you to do. If you don’t step up to the call, then the whole world will miss out. So mighty man or woman of valor – God is with you. Go in the strength that you have because God has given you all the strength you need for what God has called you to do. Did He not choose you and send you for this task? Keep going. God is with you.
God, thank you for choosing to work through us to accomplish your plans. We acknowledge that you don’t’ need us to accomplish anything, but you lovingly choose to invite to join in where you are at work. Thank you for equipping up, encouraging us, and strengthening us. Thank you for including stories like Gideon in Your Word so that as we relate to his story, we find the encouragement to keep pressing forward. May we be men and women of valor, faithful and loyal to the calling you have given us.Â
God, Love and Marshmallow Wars: This book contains 365 daily challenges for couples to strengthen their relationships to each other and with God. Couples will complete activities such as Scripture memory, conversation starters, relationship builders, learning about Biblical marriage, romance builders, personal reflections, and date ideas. Click here to purchase your copy. (This link will open a new widow and take you to Westbow Press’ bookstore.) Also available on Amazon and Barnes & Nobel. It is also available at Christian Book Distributors, Amazon, and Barnes & Nobel
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