Judges 6:14-16 “Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”  “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!” The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”

Sometimes the Lord provides opportunities for us to demonstrate courage, even when we don’t particularly feel all that courageous or perhaps have never considered ourselves the “courageous type.” Take Gideon for example. Gideon was just as tired as the rest of the children of Israel who had been suffering at the hands of the Midianites. At the time the Lord’s messenger appeared to him, he was hiding and trying to get a little threshing done before he was discovered and had all he had worked for taken away from him. When the angel addressed him as a “mighty man of valor” Gideon no doubt looked around to see who had joined him!  As he clarified for the angelic messenger, he was no savior but rather the weakest member of the weakest clan in the entire tribe! God knew, however, that courage did not rest within our own abilities. No, courage resides in our resolve to trust Almighty God to know what he is doing. Gideon was resolved to trust God (the fleece thing was because he wanted to make sure that he wasn’t making a mistake about God’s directions!). Why else would he lead 300 men against an army of 120,000?

Pray: “Father God, I may not think of myself as being particularly courageous but when you ask me to do something that requires courage, I will remember that courage does not come because I trust in my own ability. Rather, courage comes when I am fully resolved to trust in your ability. Nothing is impossible for you. Lord, build my resolve today so that I will not hesitate when my time to step up arrives. In the powerful and fearless name of my risen Lord, I pray – Amen.