I wonder if anyone is listening this morning that feels plain ol’ tired and you’re beginning to think life may never get better. I wonder if anyone is listening that feels beat down from the daily fight. Is anyone listening that feels outmatched, discouraged or stuck? Yes, you’re listening? Great. You’re right where you’re supposed to be.

Today’s devotional is titled “Just What You Need” and you are about to get some guidance from God! Oh yes, it may be just what you need!

In the book of Judges chapter 6 we read about a young man named Gideon. A man just doing what he could do to survive. A man who had been beat down, attacked and fighting to simply have food to eat. Gideon was part of the Israelites who had escaped slavery in Egypt and were now wandering around in the desert starving.

In verse 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”

Now this must have been confusing to Gideon because it sure didn’t feel like God had been with him. I mean everything had been going wrong. Everything. And why would God call him a hero? He had done nothing. He felt so helpless threshing his wheat, hiding just trying to find a way to eat. But yes, God called him a hero. A mighty hero.

God had a plan for Gideon and who he would need to become was something much more than he currently was. God has a plan for you and you may need to become much more than you currently are. You may need to rise up to the potential God has placed in you, the God given potential buried beneath years of playing little and settling for less. God sees you for who you CAN be and he calls you out to step into your potential. The real you, the authentic, best version of you is in there and God is calling her out! Are you ready to become more than your currently are? Are you ready to step up to the next level of living?

Let’s look at how Gideon responds to God.

God says, “hey you, mighty hero, God is with you!”

Gideon says “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?”

That was a fair response. Look around, we’re starving here. If you’re with us, why is this happening?!!!! Have you ever asked God why? Oh I sure have. Have you ever gotten a good answer? Yeah, me neither. In fact God’s answer to my questioning of why looks a whole lot like his answer to Gideon.

Gideon says hey, if you’re with us, why has all this happened. God doesn’t skip a beat and says “GO WITH THE STRENGTH YOU HAVE – I”M SENDING YOU.”

Oh snap. No explanation. Just go with the strength you have.

I believe God is saying the same thing to you and I today. I’m not going to explain why all this has happened, that’s why it’s called faith. Will you move on before you understand why, or will you beat yourself silly and stay stuck right there for the next 10 years trying to figure out why? That’s your choice, but understand this, God is calling you on. GO WITH THE STRENGTH YOU HAVE, I’M SENDING YOU. You must trust me and go do what you can about the situation with what you have. What you have may not be a whole lot, but that’s exactly what God wants to use to change your situation. You must go and do what you can with what you have.

I love Gideon’s honest response in verse 15 – “But Lord,” “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe, and I am the least in my entire family!”

Gideon felt like he was nothing. Like he was the least likely to be able to do what God was asking. There were a whole lot better candidates than him.

And this is the way our God works. Indeed. He doesn’t choose the equipped, he equips the chosen. Oh what could we do if we had the courage to go with the strength we do have? What a difference we could make. What an impact. What a legacy.

I have an amazing son who is 20 years old. He is everything I hoped he would be as a young man. He’s a soldier in the US Army currently stationed in South Korea and while I haven’t seen him in 9 months, he calls his mama most every day just to tell me he loves me. Now, let me tell you a little story … from the time boy was 12 to 13 years old, I came to understand why some animals eat their young. He was an unbearable little jerk. I didn’t like anything about it and the only reason I could love him was simply because he breathed. One day I was praying about this little jerk, begging God to help me guide him out of his attitude and into his potential. And God responded very clearly to me “in the morning I want you to host a live devotional call.”

What? Yo God, did you not hear me. I’m pouring my heart out over this boy of mine and you’re telling me to start hosting a devotional? What I didn’t know then was God was taking care of my boy. He was letting him fail so he could build him up for future success. He was molding and shaping him. Mama needed to get started with her thing. That little devotional call I led the next morning is now the number 1 women’s devotional podcast in the world! I had no idea what I was doing, but I decided I would just show up and do what I could with what I had.

Will you go with the strength you do have and do what God is calling you to do?

Gideon and his army were up against hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Gideon had only 32,000 men to fight. They were outnumbered. The odds were against them.

Maybe the odds are against you. If God is for you, who can be against you? God is with you mighty hero. Use the strength you have to do what you can. God is sending you.

And God working in his mighty ways whittles down Gideon’s army of 32,000 men to only 300 and sends them to battle. 300 against hundreds of thousands. Impossible.

The 300 come back victorious.

Yes, it was impossible, but our God is the God of the impossible. And it all began with a desperate young man in a bad situation who God saw potential in. A man who was willing to use what little strength he did have, the unlikely candidate who stepped up to lead because God told him to. He didn’t wait until it all made sense. He didn’t wait until he felt sure of the success. When God told him to go, he went.

God is calling you out of a season of sitting and wondering how things are going to get better. He’s on your side and he will give you everything you need for your victory, but it likely won’t come until you’re willing to get up and use the strength you already have.

Mighty hero. That’s what you have in you. That’s the story you have available in your life. I hope you choose it.