Wednesday, October 2

{Day 2} Go in the Strength You Have - Judges 6:14

{Day 2}

Today we're going to visit the book of Judges in the Old Testament.

Admittedly, Judges is one of those books I've been avoiding. It's not exactly easy reading for me, so I find myself skipping the hard stuff and gravitating to the easier books. (aka: the Gospels, Psalms, Ephesians, etc.)

But I do know there is great truth in all of Scripture. And I've always been struck by Gideon's story, and it appears in the book of Judges, so I need to like it a little.

Judges 6:11 begins the narrative of Gideon, the guy called by God to save Israel from the hand of the Midianites, who they were given over to seven years earlier because of their sin. The Israelites were impoverished and persecuted by Midian through the years, and now God wants Gideon to defeat them, releasing the Israelites from captivity.

But Gideon isn't so sure God's got the right guy.

Gideon was minding his own business one day, threshing wheat for his family. He was so doing in secret because the Midianites would surely confiscate it if they found out what he was doing.



Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him saying, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.(v. 12)

Gideon probably looked over his shoulder to see if anyone better suited to this sort of greeting was standing behind him. I know I would have.

13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

Naturally, Gideon wondered where God had been those seven years.

14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

Go in the strength you have.

I just love that.

In my paraphrase it would say, "Gideon. Gideon! You are enough (with my help of course)... You don't need special training. Get out there, and save your people from Midian. Are you seriously going to ignore me? I'm sending you on a mission. Now, go."

There's so much more to the story (and I've already written way more than I'd planned), but the part I want us to see is that God told Gideon to just go. Just trust. Because He called him.

It's going to be okay.

That thing He's asking you to step out and do? Yes, He knows it looks scary from your perspective. If we could only see what He can see, we wouldn't be afraid.


That baby He's called you to adopt? It's going to be okay.

The neighbor He's asked you to invite over? It's going to be okay.

That move overseas He's asking you to make? It's going to be okay.

That child He's asking you to love unconditionally? It's going to be okay.


We just need to show up with open hands and a willing heart. He'll do the rest.







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