We were commissioned to recruit a team to come alongside a group of churches in London to help capture the momentum building around the games that would be hosted in London, England.
At a commissioning ceremony and missions banquet, I found myself leading a team of 20 people from central Missouri to totally displace themselves from the context in which they live. God was stirring in each of us a fire that could only be fanned by surrendering to the mission. It all seemed surreal. Just 8 months ago, I was wondering if my life had any purpose, and now I am trying to just hang on. I felt insecure and even doubtful that my role had any significance, but then I heard my friend speak about Gideon.
In Judges chapter 6, we find Gideon at the bottom of a winepress threshing wheat, because he was afraid the Midianites would find him and take the grain. In verse 12, the angel of the Lord appears to him and calls him "Mighty Warrior!" and tells him "the Lord is with you!"
The question Gideon asks next is one that I find myself wrestling with daily. He asks, "If the Lord is with us, then why has he allowed circumstance to happen to us?" Then the Lord tells Gideon to go with the strength he has and rescue Israel. Naturally, Gideon answers like most of us would. "How can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest and I am the least of my clan." Already, Gideon has disqualified himself from being obedient to what the Lord told him to do. Have you ever been there?
We finish chapter 6 and we see Gideon asking for miraculous signs to prove what he had heard. Not only did he doubt the angel was the Lord, but then he asked God, "If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel, could you prove it to me?"
I feel, I have seen this before in my own life. It's not enough to trust God in what he says, but we try to trust our understanding of what God says before we act.
Jump over to chapter 7, and we find Gideon rattled in his trust of God again. In verse 2 Gideon has prepared an army to "rescue Israel" and God comes and tells Gideon that he has too many warriors.
What I find interesting, is that when we finally convince ourselves God will deliver us, we take his promise and figure out how to logically execute it.
God tells Gideon to reduce his army because he didn't want the people of Israel to boast that they saved themselves by their own strength.
First of all, this is typical of us. We allow circumstance to wreak havoc over us day in and day out, but when God tells us to take action against our circumstance, we find ways to defeat it on our own power. Then we rest in the fact that WE earned the victory.
In verse 7 we find that God had whittled the army from 32,000 down to 300 men. We find out later Gideon's men would face the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people from the east; which were like "grains of sand on the seashore-too many to count!"
God sorted the men by different ways, but what he wanted were those who had FOCUS on the promise, not FEAR of the unknown.
"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." 2 Chronicles 16:9What I learned that spring day, was God sees in YOU what you didn't see yourself. A dream he placed in you long before you were "knitted in your mother's womb." He wants you to trust him with your very life.
"For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him." Colossians 1:16Your life is waiting to be activated by God, so that you may truly live. He wants you to have life and more abundantly than you could ever imagine.
God is looking for a crowd to "rescue his children", but he always starts with one. Don't get lost in the crowd and become another face. Don't disqualify yourself because the world has told you that you have no worth. A wildfire only needs a spark to ignite the forest. Live your life as a spark or as a smoldering ember. Never count yourself as worthless to God, for his Word tells us:
"I can do all this through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13
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