Encouragement

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What a chicken that Gideon started out to be in Judges, Chapter 6! A more contemporary paraphrase of his first answer might read- The Lord is with us, RIGHT! Then explain why this Lord has the Midianites beating us to a pulp constantly. God understood his confusion here, and dismissed his complaint, saying "Go in the strength you have, and save Israel out of the hand of the Midianites." Gideon put this message to a test, to see if it really was from God. Once he got that part straight, he went to work. First he smashed the altar of Baal, and built an altar to God to show which God he belonged to. But the next part is even gutsier- he went to war against an army to large to count with only 300 men, armed with clay jars and trumpets! Gideon didn't look at his odds, he looked at His God!

Tight as a drum is an apt description of Jericho in the days before its walls fell. Joshua 6 says-Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites; no one went out and no one came in. But Joshua and his army had no trouble entering when it was time. He had his marching army circle the city with the priests carrying trumpets of ram's horns, which they played as they marched around the city, once a day for 6 days. On the seventh day, they marched around Jericho seven times, and then gave a long honk on the horns, followed by a shout- and the walls came a tumblin down. Joshua had fought many a battle in the strength of his God before that, but this still took some looking at his God to pull off. He didn't look at his odds, he looked at his God!

When we face the enemy, the circumstances, the hearts of people, don't we always have some doubt about the outcome? Isn't it reasonable to fear failure, even though we know God is on our side? But we always have to give up our fear when we know it His will that leads what we do. We have to take our eyes off our odds- the negatives we face- and look at our God.

Don't look at the odds, look at your God, because it's always His fight!

Tell me what you think, I'm just thinkin out loud!

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