With God, You Are Enough
Have you ever felt inadequate, or like you were just not good enough to accomplish the assignment that God had put before you? Let me assure you that you are correct, in and of ourselves we are not enough! However, there is hope for us all. When we have accepted God as the authority in our lives, and we surrender our will to His, miraculous things can happen.
There are a few examples of this in the Bible, but today I would like to share Gideon’s experience.
The Midianites had ruled over Israel for seven years and were very cruel to them. God sent an angel to visit Gideon to let him know that he was to go and rescue Israel.
Gideon instantly had doubts as to whether or not he could accomplish this assignment. He asked God for a sign three different times to be sure this was what God wanted Him to do. Because God knew that Gideon had doubts and that he was afraid, God in His merciful grace indulged Him each time, so that he would be clear that the request was from Him.
I am sure that we all have thought at one time or another, “Why me” when God has directed us to do something that was clearly out of our comfort zone.
What we must remember though is that God never set His children up for failure. When He asks us to do something, a plan for success is already in place, and it will be accomplished in a way that He will receive all of the glory. Our job is just to be obedient and move forward.
God’s plan for Gideon, was that He was going to achieve a great victory with a small army. When you do the math, it does not make sense that such a small army of men could be victorious over all of the Midianites. But God does supernatural math. Gideon started out with an army of 32,000 men and God had him to streamline it down to 10,000 and then on down to 300 men. These 300 men fought a battle against 135,000 Midianites, and with God as their general, they literally wiped them out!
Can you say, “But God”?
When I tell you that you plus God is more than enough to conquer any mountain, believe me, because it is true! I don’t know what your mountain is today, but if God called you to climb it, you are enough for the journey, because He will go before you, he will give you the wisdom, the strength, and yes even the courage to get it done. So go be great! You have His permission.
Because with God you are enough!
Judges 7:1-7
7 Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. 2 The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.
4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”
Judges 8:4-12
4 Gideon and his three hundred men, exhausted yet keeping up the pursuit, came to the Jordan and crossed it. 5 He said to the men of Sukkoth, “Give my troops some bread; they are worn out, and I am still pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian.”
6 But the officials of Sukkoth said, “Do you already have the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna in your possession? Why should we give bread to your troops?”7 Then Gideon replied, “Just for that when the Lord has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with desert thorns and briers.”
8 From there he went up to Peniel[a] and made the same request of them, but they answered as the men of Sukkoth had. 9 So he said to the men of Peniel, “When I return in triumph, I will tear down this tower.”
10 Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with a force of about fifteen thousand men, all that were left of the armies of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had fallen. 11 Gideon went up by the route of the nomads east of Nobah and Jogbehah and attacked the unsuspecting army. 12 Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army.
2 Corinthians 3:5
5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.
