An
Encouraging Word
Judges Chapters 6-8 record for us the
deliverance God provided for Israel through Gideon after seven years of
domination and harassment by the Midianites. The Midianites would
systematically confiscate by force their agricultural products. Gideon,
in an effort to hide his wheat, was conducting a covert threshing
operation. In time, the Angel of the Lord appeared, assuring him the
LORD was “with him” and addressing him as “thou mighty man of valor!”
(6:12).
Gideon’s response was an
understandable one. He asked: “If
you are WITH us, why has all this evil at the hands of the Midianites
BEFALLEN us?” Many a child of God has asked the Lord the
same question over the millennia since. Are you one of them?
Then scripture makes this statement: "And THE LORD LOOKED UPON HIM and
said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of
the Midianites: have not I sent thee?” (6:14). Why make
this seemingly redundant statement when it’s obvious from the context
Gideon and the Angel were already looking at each other as they
conversed?
I believe it’s because God saw in
Gideon what Gideon could not see in himself. God saw Gideon becoming
the deliverer that he in his wildest imagination could never see
himself becoming!
God the Father sees in each one of
us, who are “under grace” through faith in Jesus Christ, the potential
to be transformed into the image and likeness of his Son and perform
great spiritual things through the indwelling Spirit and the spiritual
gifts with which he has equipped us. In fact, he has
predestinated the believer to be conformed to the image of the Lord
Jesus (Romans 8:29).
I can assure you, BEATING BACK the
world, the flesh and the devil and PUTTING ON the Lord Jesus
Christ (Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:24, 6:11; Colossians 3:10-14) is
EVERY bit as challenging (if not more so) as defeating the Midianites!
As God LOOKS at the Christian in the
same manner he LOOKED at Gideon, he sees what he wants to MAKE
out of us and DO with us that we cannot see in ourselves. There is no
greater challenge for a child of God than discovering what that is and
pursuing it with all diligence, knowing that the Lord is WITH us and
has SENT us to accomplish it!
It matters not whether the believer
is an Olympic athlete or bound to a wheelchair. There is something of
the glory of Jesus that the Father desires to build into each one of us
who have believed. What an encouraging word!
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