It Is God Who Helps Me In My Needs!
The Lord said to Gideon, ” 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.” Judges 7:2
Confronted with imminent attack by the Midianites, the tribes of Israel turned to Gideon to take up their defense. Israel was a serious underdog in this fight as her army consisted of 32,000 soldiers as the Midianites numbered 135,000 in strength! Although the Israelites had an outside chance of victory, God wished to prove that He was the cause of the victory and that Gideon’s army did not succeed alone.
So God asked Gideon to trim down the ranks from 32,000 to 10,000. From the 10,000, God asked Gideon to screen the men and only those who “lapped the waters up with their tongues” were to be accepted. Out of 10,000 only 300 were accepted to fight in Gideon’s army. But these were the odds God wanted, because at the end of the day when Israel had won, He wanted everyone to say, ” It was God who gave us the victory over our enemies!”
I know in the these past months I have experienced situations where the odds have been stacked against me, only to find that the Lord allows those odds to grow in favor of my situation. My 32,000 soldiers turn into 10,000 then into 300! As I pray for God’s guidance and direction, the opposite of what I am praying for is unfolding in my circumstances. It seems to me that He has taken those things I have relied on, my job , my health, any wealth I may have, anything that I hold dear and has begun to make those things much less secure in my life so that I might put my full trust in him.
Just like he did with Gideons army, he will remove things from us in order to reveal his resources to us in our situations. God knows best for me in my situation – At the end of the day he wants me to say “It was God!”
Psalm 20:7-8
Pictures are from Gideon Springs where “300 lapped the waters up with their tongues” (Click on the photo to enlarge)
