Dave’s Monday Blast – October 8, 2018
Throughout Scripture we see countless examples of God meeting with man and countless lives being transformed as the result of those encounters.Each morning I read a devotional titled “First Fifteen” by Greg Denison. He comments, “These Scriptural encounters with God are designed to stir our faith and fill us with a desire to meet with our Creator. When we read about the life of David, we should be filled with a longing to live as he did, centered around meeting with our heavenly Father. When we read about Gideon or Moses, we should long to know our God as they did. When we read about Jesus coming down to us or his heart for the woman caught in adultery, we should respond by pursuing encounters with our Savior. And when we read of Pentecost and Jesus’ second coming, we should seek out the fullness of God’s presence available to us on this earth in preparation for the age that is to come.”
In Judges 6 the story of God meeting with Gideon should inspire our faith. Gideon exemplifies the truth that God anoints all he appoints. He will perfectly equip and empower you to accomplish whatever task he has set before you. We should long to be used by God as he was.
In this narrative, an angel of the Lord approaches Gideon, who at the time was beating out wheat in a winepress to hide his activity from the oppressive Midianites. In v. 12 the angel calls Gideon a “Mighty Man of valor”. Denison writes, “Now, if an angel appeared to me and told me something, I’d like to think I would believe whatever he said. Not so with Gideon. He immediately doubts the word of God. He responds to God’s call to save Israel by saying, ‘Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.'” (Judges 6:15-16).
So great was Gideon’s insecurity that he didn’t trust a direct word from God. But God still responded to Gideon’s doubt by meeting him at that place of insecurity and faithlessness and consistently speaking truth over him. Before Gideon even had a chance to doubt, God called him a “mighty man of valor.” God knew Gideon’s insecurities. He knew that his past and present works were anything but full of valor. But God called out the greatness he had placed in Gideon. In meeting with Gideon, he formed and fashioned him into a man full of faith and power.
You remember the story as it plays out in chapters 6 and 7, Gideon powerfully defeated an oppressive army vastly outnumbering his own because of the power of God working through him. God longs to fill you and empower you today. He longs to conquer the works of the enemy that oppress those he loves through you. Meet with God today my brothers. Allow him to call out the greatness he has placed within you. Allow him to guide you into battles only he could win that you might bring his kingdom to earth all around you. May you be filled with his love, grace, and power today as you open your heart and spend time with your heavenly Father.
