“Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

— Judges 6: 14

Life almost always leads us to a crossroad; a moment in time where we must decide who we are, whose we are, and what we are truly capable of. Usually these moments are prompted by the urgency of a decision, a new opportunity, or a course altering event.

Suddenly we’re standing face to face with possibility; and often times in our minds we measure up short. I have stood at that very intersection countless times in my life, the place where God has asked me to do something that seemed absolutely impossible.

This brings to mind the story of Gideon. A young man, exiled in a foreign country who God asked to lead an army (while he was baking bread, I might add). When considering the fact that neither Gideon or the people he was expected to lead had military training, this was not only a daunting but impossible request.

You see, Gideon’s people were being heavily oppressed and were essentially defenseless and living in fear of the very people they were now expected to fight. For reference, that would look like you, your Aunt Lucy, who can make a mean apple pie, but couldn’t harm a fly to save her life and your great Uncle Tom, who just had knee surgery, and 30 of your favorite cousins going up against five of the greatest military forces in the world AT THE SAME TIME. Furthermore, as Gideon began to prep for battle the size of his army continued to decrease BY THOUSANDS. Yet the command remained the same; Go in the strength you have.

When God gave Gideon this command, his immediate (and very human) response was to list all of the reasons he wasn’t equipped for the task. Gideon was so taken aback by what God had called him to do that he spent two days asking God to give him a sign so that he’d know for sure that it was actually God speaking to him. It was unfathomable to Gideon that God could ask him to perform a task that would almost certainly end with his demise: and from the naked eye he had good reason to think so. For starters, he was an exile in hiding, he didn’t have a trained army backing him, and he considered himself and family to be the least among their peers. This theme is echoed in the biblical stories of both Saul and Moses and perhaps in your life too?

In the lives of each of these men a common thread can be seen; God called them to a heroic mission that none of them felt qualified to do. Rather than looking to God to be their strength, all of these men looked inwardly at their shortcomings and outwardly at their social standing and limited resources and decided that they did not have what it took. Do you want to know another commonality these three men shared? None of them looked upward, to God. The second half of what God said to Gideon was, “Am I not sending you?” This statement implied that there was significance and power in the One who had orchestrated the mission.

Friend, we cannot believe in our limited abilities more than we believe in the sovereignty, wisdom and power of God. We are well versed in all of the reasons that we aren’t the person for the job but God has a unique vantage point. He knows what He’s placed within each of us and He knows what He has called us to. We must believe, understand, and live our lives in a way that reflects the truth; if God has called us to something, He has equipped us for it.

The most interesting part of Gideon’s story was that once he gave God his “yes” and moved forward every other aspect of his journey had already been accounted for. God had already gone ahead of him to ensure his victory. That fact leads me to this one; sometimes the army isn’t a group of rambunctiously well-trained and heavily armed men. Sometimes the army is old thought patterns, disbelief, bad habits, limiting ideas of what we are capable of, self doubt and past disappointments. Sometimes the army that we must fight against in order to do the things God has asked us to do is the way we view ourselves. In other words, the army standing against you is you.

Read that again.

So here’s a few things we all need to digest:

God isn’t setting us up for failure… ever. Jeremiah 29:11.
God is always with us. He won’t abandon us in the fight. Joshua 1:5
God is the strength we have. Isaiah 12:2
Though the weapons may form, they will never prosper. Isaiah 54: 17

When the Lord told Gideon, “Go in the strength you have”, He was essentially telling him “Go with God.“ Beloved, God is saying the same thing to you today. Go, knowing that the path has already been cleared for you. Go forward knowing that you have no reason to fear. None.

Stop waiting for it to be perfect. Stop waiting for the timing to be just right. Stop waiting to have the large audience. Stop looking at where you came from or who you used to be. Stop focusing on your limitations.

He has led you to this crossroads, a path of perceived impossibility but look again. God often asks us to do what seems impossible to prove that all things are possible through Him. Go in the strength you have, God is sending you.

Go in the Strength You Have