The story of Gideon is one of my favorite stories in the Bible.  Here is a guy living in a world where he is constantly harassed by bullies. He has to sneak and hide to prepare his wheat to use for food. Then one day an angel appears to him and calls him "a mighty man of valor". Gideon is like, "who?, me?" He then proceeds to explain to the angel that his family is the poorest one around, and he, himself, is the smallest of his family. So, how can little, old Gideon be this "mighty man of valor?" First of all, God doesn't always see us the way we see us. remember who he chose to follow Jesus and become the first missionaries of the gospel. Not one of those guys were exactly the "pick of the litter." God sees our heart, not the way man, or even we, ourselves see us. God knows the number of hairs on your head...do you? Probably not. So, God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knew Gideon could handle what He wanted him to do. Besides, the beauty of it is; Gideon really didn't do much of anything. God did it all, really, when it comes right down to it. He did tell him to do a few things that for the world he lived in was just outright rude. First God had him tear down an altar to Baal, then tear down the wooden image of Baal, and sacrifice his fathers best bull on the altar he built to God; some pretty "out of the box" stuff. That's the way God operates sometimes, not by man's wisdom. God's ways are greater than ours, and His thoughts way above our own. Let's face it, God just knows more than we do. After all, He put this whole thing together from the start. Like when God asked Job (Job 38:4); "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth?" God is constantly telling me: "Don't sweat it, I've already got it all figured out. You just do what I tell you to do, and nothing more or less." I have trouble getting that little bit right, lots of times.

  When Gideon demolished the altar to Baal, some people around got really upset. They wanted to kill him! However, Gideon's father came to his defense with something like; "If Baal is so great, why do you need to vindicate the destruction of his altar? Let him vindicate for himself." The story continues that God tells Gideon how he's going to save Israel from the Midianites. At this point Gideon, I would imagine, is a bit overwhelmed. So, he asks God for a sign. We still, to this day refer to "putting out the fleece," Gideon puts out a sheep's fleece and says to God, "If the dew settles on the fleece, but the ground is dry...then I know this is real." He checks the fleece the next morning; sure enough, he rings a bowl of water out of the fleece. But that's not enough for Gideon, he asks God for the same sign, but the other way around. God gave him the sign he asked for. So, finally Gideon is convinced that what he is hearing from God is real. How many times have we doubted God and asked for the same kind of reassurance? It seems with what we know of God that we would be able to just trust Him at His word.

  While all this has been going on, other people have gathered together to go up against the Midianites. About 32,000 people have come together. God tells Gideon that that's too many people. Once again, "out of the box." Man's wisdom says, "if you're going up against an army, you need an army." Again, God doesn't think like us. God tells Gideon to tell the host of people there that whoever is fearfull of what's to come they should leave. Upon hearing that, 22,000 of them left. Gideon now has 10,000 to work with. God says, "too many." God has Gideon take them all out to the water and the ones who drink, putting their hand to their mouth, set aside. Out of the 10,000 men, 300 put their hand to their mouth. Now Gideon has 300 men to go up against a vast army. Ounce again, the wisdom of men would say, "Are you nuts??" When you have the hand of God on your side, There is nothing to worry about. Nothing!

   Next the story gets even more interesting. Gideon takes the three hundred men; gives them a trumpet, a torch, and an empty pitcher. No swords, no shields, no armor: just trumpets, torches, and pitchers. The Midianites were all camped in a valley at the time, and Gideon and all his guys surround while they're sleeping. When signaled, Gideon's men break their pitchers with the torches inside, blow their horns, and shout, "The sword of the Lord and Gideon!" The Midianites are so freaked out by all this that they just start going crazy, killing each other. It's like they don't know who's attacking, so they're slashing whoever is in front of them.

  This is the power of God. He takes what little we have and make it more than enough of what we need. Just like Jesus with the five loaves of bread and two fish (Matthew 14: 13-21). Jesus fed five thousand people (the actual count was the men; the women and children present were not counted. So it could have been many more, actually). Then they had twelve baskets of scraps left over!

  I am always reminded of this story when I don't think I have enough, or am up against a situation I just can't handle or don't know what to do next. This story reminds me that this whole thing is about God; His Kingdom, His Glory. It's not about me or my petty problems or issues. There's a much greater weight in the balance of all eternity. My little storms will pass on through. What's more important is helping others through their storms and helping them find the relationship with God they need. And just as important: keeping people lifted up in prayer. Often, that's all we can do, but it is what we CAN do. Never discount the power of prayer, and praying His Word.