Day 3 | Helping Hands, 2016

Day 3 - For it is [not your strength, but it is] God who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose] for His good pleasure. - Philippians 2:13 [Amplified version] 

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When the Lord told Gideon to save Israel from Midian’s hand, his reply was “Pardon me Lord but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family.” You can almost see Gideon’s shock with his mouth hanging open… excuse me? What did you say? You can’t be talking about my crew or me. Who am I?

And as you continue through the rest of Judges 6, you see Gideon pursuing God to confirm these instructions. He is praying, sacrificing, following specific steps in obedience, acknowledging when the Lord appears, then worshiping him and setting up an altar of remembrance. Then he pursues God again with the next steps and the Lord appears and confirms again.

By Chapter 7 Gideon has established a level of Trust that the Lord is with him. So, when the Lord asks him to thin his already small army, the same guy that was originally startled to go, doesn’t even question it. And then he does it again thinning it out even more, per the Lord’s instruction.

True yes, Gideon did win the war and he did take specific steps and actions to make it happen but it was not his actions that changed Gideon or that gave him confidence or that even gave him the upper-hand. It was the Lord’s revelation to him.

Anyone can tell you what to do and how to do it. You can practice every step and do it all very well. –But nothing will be more powerful in your own life that the Lord’s direct and personal revelation to you! Nor will anything in your life give you the same level of confidence.

Think About It

1. What areas of your life do you feel too small to be useable by the Lord?

2. What do you think you’d need to feel more empowered? Have you prayed or asked about it?

3. When was the last time that you sought the Lord and asked that He reveal himself in your circumstance?





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