"Go with the strength you have..."

11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites.
12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”
13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”
16 The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”

Judges 6:11-16

When God called Gideon, he wasn't even sure if it was real, and it looked as though he was a little miffed about all the stuff that had gone on in the country. God had already decreed that what was happening had happened because of Israel's specific disobedience, but they didn't really respond to correct that. So, God called this one guy, Gideon, who was just threshing wheat, to do what was necessary.

Gideon had a list of things that disqualified him and made it "impossible" for him to win, but God knew better. He told him in vs. 14 to "go with the strength you have..." I guess that's what all of us need to do. We need to stop complaining about what "we" don't have/get/like/agree with and go with the strength we have when God presents something unavoidable in our path, and the Midianites, if you read the backstory on this, were pretty much that...unavoidable.

Really, life comes down to one thing...are you going to be with the Lord and be obedient, or are you just going to keep coming up with excuses...urrr...."reasons" why you won't submit to what is obviously before you? Gideon figured it out...and he went with the strength he was given.

Lesson from the story: If God puts it in the path of your life, do it. "Go with the strength you have..." and you'll see that God will take care of everything that is beyond what He gives you...just like he did for Gideon...read the story.

P.S. Serving God isn't about what you are doing. Serving God is about Who you are willing to do anything for.

Please pray for us as we attempt to be a church in west Palm Bay for Jesus at Bay West Church.