Judges 6-7

Sometimes life gets overwhelming. We may face loss, illness, unfair circumstances, opposition, rejection, danger – you name it. Life can be really, really hard.

Maybe you, like Gideon, want to hide in the winepress, tucked away from the world. But then you hear, like Gideon heard, the voice of God telling you to get out there and fight.

You reply, “But I can’t. I don’t have it in me. I’m too weak. What you’re asking is too hard.” If that’s the case, my friend, I want you to stop and listen to what God told Gideon…

“But I will be with you.”

When you are down for the count and feel like you are drowning in a raging sea, you will never hear God tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. He won’t cheer you on by saying, “You can do it. Try harder.” You don’t have to convince yourself how strong you are, or beat yourself up because you think you should be stronger.

I know it’s a paradox, but Christianity is full of them. The truth is, we win our battles when we surrender our wills to the Lord’s. God knows are weakness. But Paul testified what? When we are weak, GOD IS STRONG.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” …I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. In the case of Gideon, he asked God, “why” bad things were happening. God didn’t answer the “why,” he told Gideon to go with the strength he had at the moment, and fight. Do you know how much strength old Gideon must have had hiding there in the winepress? I would guess next to none. So God said, “You might be weak son. BUT I WILL BE WITH YOU.”

YOU might be weak. But God is not.

We all know it took a bit more convincing before Gideon took that first step into battle. (read about the whole meat and fleece thing in these chapters. Isn’t our God patient with us?). But Gideon eventually did take the first step, and God gave him victory over his enemies.

I don’t know what you are going through, how beaten down you feel, how weak you are right now. But my prayer is that when you hear God say, “Go,” and you convince you can’t, you will remember He said, “But I will go with you.”

Surrender, dear one. Trust God with your battles. Stop telling Him what He ought to do, and let Him show You what He can do. I’m praying for you.