2/7/12
S: Judges 6:11-12 Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.
The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!”
O: Israel had once again stopped following God and so God allowed the Midianites to terrorise them, reducing them to starvation and forcing them out of their homes to hide in caves in the mountains.
Imagine how Gideon would have felt! Here he was, cowering in a winepress to hide from the Midianites, trying to thresh his grain where there was no wind to blow the chaff away.
Then here comes this angel and he greets him as a "mighty hero"! "Who me? What mighty hero?!!"
But we know what happened: God used Gideon and a tiny army of 300 men to defeat the mighty Midianite an Amalekite army described as "a swarm of locusts" and camels "as numerous as sand on the seashore"!
Gideon was no "mighty hero"... except that God had commissioned him and God was with him! God even deliberately reduced his 32,000-strong army to 300 men “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.”
A: Have you felt inadequate to the task that God has called you? I certainly have. Yet, if He has called you to the task, then you're a "mighty hero" -- "I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13)
P: Father, when I feel discouraged by the challenges I face, remind me that, if I am doing what You want me to do, then I, too, can be a mighty hero. In Jesus' name, amen.
Note: this is using the SOAP method. For more information, see this page (not written by me.)
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