Tuesday, August 25, 2020 Some material taken from God’s Warrior From Manasseh
The LORD looked at him and said, Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you? O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house Judges 6:14-15
A Job for the Inadequate, Unqualified, and Least Likely
Consistently throughout scripture we see God use the most ill-equipped, inexperienced,
and least likely people to carry out some of His greatest works. David and Moses
were the youngest in their families. David was a young boy when he was anointed
King. After Pharaoh ordered all Hebrew baby boys killed at birth, Moses was
pulled from the bulrushes, raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, and chosen by God to
lead His people out of bondage. Joseph was second to youngest and was thrown in
a pit and sold to gypsies by his older brothers. In spite of his brothers’
abuse, he became the viceroy, second only to Pharaoh, and ended up saving his
family from starvation during a famine. And
then Gideon, also the youngest, asking God how on earth is he supposed to
deliver Israel? He comes from an insignificant family and he is the youngest
son - he one with the least responsibilities and the last in line to be chosen
for any kind of special task.
God doesn’t need
our ability but our availability.
He has built His Kingdom with the weak. –
Van Houser
Gideon did not have social media, but he may have suffered from the comparison trap. He didn’t see his family as significant, and he certainly didn’t see himself as capable of doing what God was calling him to do. It is easy for us to think of 100 other people that could do the job better than we could. We can scroll though Facebook and find 100 people doing life way better than we are, or so it appears. It is easier to believe that God can use others we see as stronger, wiser, or better than ourselves, yet He keeps calling us!
Even if we feel we are not equipped – and we may not be - God promises to be with us every step of the way and to equip us with everything we need for His calling. God told Gideon that He would be with him every step and he would defeat the Midianites. But the LORD said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man. Judges 6:16
Whether you think you are the person for the job or not, you will never know what God can do through you until you surrender. If you try to fulfill His call on your life in your own power, you will surely fail, as will even the most qualified of all people. It is only in His power that we can fulfill His calling on our lives – no matter our qualifications! God uses us when we feel weak, unworthy, broken, and unqualified because everyone can see more clearly His hand in the outcome. His glory is all the more glorious in the midst of the ashes.
Has He called you to do something you are running from? Are you in a standoff with the Lord, arguing that you are not the person for that job? Surrender. Surrender to Him and allow Him to show you who you are and what He can do through you in His calling on your life.
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 NASB
Lara Cook