Tough Enough

When I was growing up building up a child’s confidence was not really a prime concern for most parents. It’s not that parents wanted their children to not have confidence, it just wasn’t something they thought much about. Dad spent his time pointing out all the things I had done wrong and pointing out my flaws. Since he was a man who had worked in manual labor jobs he talked to me like he and the others he worked with talked to each other. Sorry this or stupid that or can’t you do anything right. I don’t know if that had anything to do with it or if it was just part of growing up but I never really thought I was worth much growing up. I was afraid to try things because I was afraid that I would fail and I didn’t want to fail. Anytime I failed or didn’t do really well at something It made me feel terrible and it made me even less likely to try anything else.

I am not sure when that changed. It probably happened gradually over time. Today I hardly ever run into something that I think I cannot do. There are some things I thing I physically cannot do but even those I figure I might could have if I had chosen to train for it and prepare for it, especially if I had done so when I was younger. There are things I don’t know how to do or that I am not skilled in doing, in other words there are things that I can’t do right now, but I usually figure that if I really wanted to and I worked at getting the skills or learning what I didn’t know I could learn how to do anything. It’s not that I couldn’t do some of these things it is just that I never have and and would need to put some effort into it in order to be able to do it, but if I wanted to to I could.

I don’t think that is because I am special or because I am overly smart of talented, I think that is true of most people, most people can do almost anything that they are willing to put the time and effort into learning and doing. Because I believe this it makes me sad to see people give up on something they want to do or learn because they decide in advance that they can’t do it.

Fear and lack of confidence have caused many people to miss out on what God has for them and their life, to not move forward into whatever God is calling them to do. I think that is the true meaning of a much misinterpreted or misused phrase. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. IF God is calling you to do something then you are good enough, smart enough, old enough, young enough or whatever you need to be enough because God is the one who makes you all those things and if he needs you to be smarter or better or even older or younger, (especially in your own mind), he can make that happen.

Romans 8:28 NASB95

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Let me show you what I am talking about

Judges 6:1–10 NASB95

Then the sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord gave them into the hands of Midian seven years. The power of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the sons of Israel made for themselves the dens which were in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds. For it was when Israel had sown, that the Midianites would come up with the Amalekites and the sons of the east and go against them. So they would camp against them and destroy the produce of the earth as far as Gaza, and leave no sustenance in Israel as well as no sheep, ox, or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, they would come in like locusts for number, both they and their camels were innumerable; and they came into the land to devastate it. So Israel was brought very low because of Midian, and the sons of Israel cried to the Lord. Now it came about when the sons of Israel cried to the Lord on account of Midian, that the Lord sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘It was I who brought you up from Egypt and brought you out from the house of slavery. ‘I delivered you from the hands of the Egyptians and from the hands of all your oppressors, and dispossessed them before you and gave you their land, and I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed Me.” ’ ”

Here is a group of people who have a real problem. As a recap for the last 7 years the nation of Israel has been in a rut. What happens is that a group of nomads come by about harvest time and just decimate the whole country. These Midianites would come in and take all the grains and produce they would take all the livestock, poison the wells, kill everyone they could catch and then go away laughing and waving, yelling see you next year.

The Israelites would run away and hide in caves and watch their houses burned down, the ones they just rebuilt last year, watch someone else eat their food while they starved and hide in fear while someone else has a huge feast with everything they had worked for and saved for knowing all the time that it had all happened before and having every reason to expect that it would happen again, and again, and again.

Enter Gideon stage left.

Judges 6:11–16 NASB95

Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.” Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” The Lord looked at him and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?” He said to Him, “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.” But the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man.”

Gideon is in a winepress and he is beating out wheat, he is threshing wheat by hand rather than going where there is the equipment to and the place to prepare wheat he is doing it in a winepress. Why, because no one would look for wheat in a winepress, wheat and grapes are not harvested at the same time. He is hiding, he is hiding what food he has and he is hiding himself just trying to get enough to survive off of, just trying to get by. He looks up and there is an angel.

The angel stands before Gideon and gives him a hearty greeting. The Lord is with you o mighty man of valor. I picture Gideon down on his hands and knees just trying to survive and hearing this being of power and glory call him a mighty man of valor. I picture him looking around to see who this angel is talking to. Here he is hiding and trying to survive, the last thing he feels like is a mighty man of valor.

So Gideon begins to complain. If God is with us why does this keep happening to us, if God is with us why am I struggling to survive instead of down there feasting like the Midianites. If God is with us where are all the miracles that we have heard about, it sure doesn’t seem like God is with us.

So the angel responds, Go in your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian.

Did you notice that God did not answer any of his questions or respond to any of his complaints. Have you ever noticed that God does not answer your questions or defend himself against your complaints. The angel did not defend God or explain what God was doing. He did not give any answers or make any excuses, he simply told Gideon to go out and defeat the Midianites.

An army that was so big you could not count them, and Gideon had no army at all, he wasn’t even a soldier. Gideon says look, I don’t think you know who you are talking to. I am in one of the twelve tribes of Israel but the tribe I am in is not really known for anything big, we are the least of all the 12 tribes. Not only that but out of all of our tribe my father is the lowest man in the tribe, so even among a tribe with no particular status my family is the lowest family in the tribe. If that is not enough I am my father’s youngest son which makes me the lowest of the low in the whole nation of Israel. I am at the bottom, you just can’t go any lower than me and you want me to go, in my strength and conquer Israel, who are you kidding.

The angel just looked at him and said surely I will be with you and you shall defeat Midian as one man. And do you know what, Gideon did.

He had no military experience, he had no status, he had no experience, he had nothing to put on a resume but he had God. He was afraid, he had no confidence, he was inexperienced and probably incompetent as a soldier but he had God. One man alone, and God is a majority. He had God, or rather God had him and so nothing was impossible.

I believe that anything God calls you to do you can do, not only that but you can be successful at it. Exceedingly and abundantly successful. Do you lack the knowledge to do whatever God wants you to do, where does knowledge come from, does not all knowledge come from God? Do you think God has run out of knowledge, do you think he doesn’t have enough left to give you what you need? Do you lack talent, where does talent come from, does it not come from God? Do you think God had a limited amount of talent and he has given it all out, that there is not enough left for you? Just exactly how small is God in your mind. If God tells you do do something do you think he is not capable of giving you whatever you need to do what he tells you to do?

If God tells you to do something and you say God I cannot do that, are you not telling God that he is not powerful enough to overcome any deficiency you might have. In a way aren’t you telling God that you are more powerful than God is. Well you see God my lack of knowledge, or talent, or confidence, or whatever is so big and so strong that there is nothing that the creator God of the universe, the inventor and dispenser of all things is just not big enough or strong enough to overcome whatever deficiency I might have. I am so important and so unique that even the creator of the heavens and the earth, the creator of all of mankind just can’t overcome my problems. Sounds kind of arrogant doesn’t it.

I believe that I can do whatever God wants me to do not because I am so great or so capable but because my God is so great and so capable. Of course there may be things that I can’t do because God doesn’t want me to to them. Then again if that is the case why would I want to do them. If God knows all and sees all and can do anything, If he loves me and wants the best for me why would I want to do something he doesn’t want me to do. It would obviously not be in my best interest.

That means that anything God wants me to do I can do, and anything God doesn’t want me to do It would be foolish for me to do anyway, so I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and so can you.