You Want Me to Do What?

In Judges 6 we find the people of Israel in pretty dire straights. Imagine you go to work and on payday you are met at the door by a thug who steals your check and cashes it himself! That's kind of the situation Israel was in. They would raise crops and then the Midianites and Amalekites would come in and "harvest" the crops for themselves.

Then God (in the form of the Angel of the Lord) showed up to a man named Gideon (who was threshing wheat in a wine press to hide from the Midianites). God said to him: "The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor." (Judges 6:12)

Gideon answered "If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us?"

In other words, "if God is with us why hasn't He done something!"

God answers him, "Go in this might of yours and save Israel."

Gideon wanted God do it all and God wanted Gideon to understand that he had the strength to do what God wanted because "I will be with you."

When we see things that need to be done, prayers to be answered, problems to be solved, trials to undergo and temptations to overcome - do we sometimes just want God to do it for us? "If you are so great why don't you just solve all my problems?"

In reality God wants to work in and through us. We, like Gideon, are to be participants in God's mighty work. We are not simply bystanders. It is by God's Spirit making his home in us that we too can accomplish His will.

So pray for answers but don't be surprised if He says "Go in this might of yours."

Pastor Tom