From The Grave - You Are Great

Good morning my friends,

So the whole thing with Gideon got really messy with him accidentally creating a thing of worship and then the people forgetting who he was after he died. Then again, they forgot God after Gideon died. Yet, there are lessons in Gideon's life that still speak to us today. I guess you could say that he is preaching to us from the grave.

Obviously the greatest lesson is what God did to assure that he received the glory for the victory and not anyone else. The fact that he made Israel less than what it was capable of being should tell us a lot about how God operates. It is not our ability that matters but instead our availability. Gideon was not actually a mighty warrior except for the fact that God declared he was. The army was not great and they used torches and horns to scare away the enemy, but it was God who threw the enemy into confusion. Yet, there is another lesson here I would like you to consider.

Gideon had a self image problem, and who would not if they were Gideon. He was a farmer not a warrior. He had 300 fellow farmers against thousands of seasoned warriors. Confidence may have been a problem here, I know it would have been for me. Yet, that is not how God saw Gideon and, more importantly, it is not how others saw Gideon. God had Gideon sneak into the enemy camp to hear what they were saying about him. God had instilled fear in their hearts. They were afraid of Gideon and his army of 300 farmers.

We are terrible at self image. Even if it is true that we are "farmers", the fact remains that is not how God sees us and that is not what he has declared over us. Our self image does not matter because we are being formed into the image of Jesus, and I think we would all agree that there is no one as mighty as he. We are mighty warriors because Jesus declared we are.

It may also surprise us to know what people are really thinking about us. People tend to have a better image of us than we have of ourselves because Jesus is at work in us. So throw off any negative thoughts you have about yourself. You are beautiful. You are intelligent. You are capable. You are rich. You are important. You have great purpose. You have been called into greatness, because God has declared it. He has spoken it into your life which means it s now a reality. You are who he says you are.

So, if Gideon could hear me I would thank him. And because does hear me I most assuredly praise him with a thankful heart. I am who he has declared me to be.