Do you ever feel weak, inept, unable to do what you want to do? Not strong physically, emotionally or spiritually?

If so, you are not the first person to feel that way.

Gideon was one of those people.

In Judges 6:12, an angel comes to Gideon and says “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!”

Gideon probably looked around him to see who the angel was talking to!

Gideon definitely didn’t feel like a man of valor. In fact, in verse 15, he asks “How can I save Israel? I’m the smallest, weakest man in the smallest, weakest tribe.”

But God used Gideon and 300 men to defeat an army of their enemy, the Midianites.

In 1 Samuel 17:36, David told King Saul that he had killed both a lion and bear. If you’ve ever seen a lion close up and personal, it’s a frightening thing. The lion that approached David was obviously an obstacle. But David killed it.

God uses difficulties to show His great strength in us. Strength that we may not even be aware of.

It is through those difficulties, when we are besieged and feel surrounded, that His power shows more and His light shines brightest.

In 2 Corinthians 12:10, Paul said “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses… in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

If we can do whatever He asks of us in our own strength, He’s not doing a miracle. His strength will not come through.

But if we look to Him and His strength, we will see what He will do through us.

The Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard. He is our strength! Isaiah 52:12

–by Pam Rehbein