DARE TO BE THE HERO: Lessons from Gideon

So for those who don't know, I am a big Jesus fan. Like HUGE. And I am currently going through my Bible and annotating it from Genesis all the way to Revelation, so that I can eventually gift it to my kids if and when they decide they want to follow Jesus. So yesterday, I was reading and putting in my notes, when I came across Judges Chapter 6. And for those who are unfamiliar, this is the chapter that we are introduced to a farmer by the name of Gideon. Now Gideon is not the most extraordinary of men. According to Gideon himself he was among the "weakest tribes of Manasseh" and was the least of his entire family. However, the Lord didn't care. He had very big plans for Gideon, which included him raising up an army and destroying the Midianites, which were the people that were oppressing the Israelites at the time. The Lord told Gideon that He was with him, and that his strength combined with the Lord would be enough to completely destroy the Midianites.

However, Gideon had questions. A LOT of questions to be honest. He questioned why they were under Midianite rule if the Lord was truly with them. He questioned why the Lord had "abandoned" them. He questioned why he was being chosen, and if it was even God that was speaking to him. He even asked God to prove it was Him by staying with him until he was able to come back with an offering. Through all of these initial questions and doubts, God stayed patient and waited, and proved to Gideon that it was really Him and that He had chosen Gideon to be Israel's next judge- their next hero. God asked Gideon to go against his family and tear down the altars that they had built to their new gods and build an altar to God, and soon after Gideon did this, the Midianites assembled an alliance and began to march against Israel. Gideon's time was coming.

Despite what God had already shown him, though, Gideon asked for yet another sign that he was truly the one that was going to be used to rescue Israel. Gideon put out a wool fleece and he asked God to make the fleece wet with dew, while the ground around it was to remain dry. God did exactly as Gideon asked, and when Gideon woke up in the morning, the fleece was soaked, but the rest of the ground was dry. Then, still not satisfied, Gideon asked for one last sign. He asked for God to keep this same fleece dry, while the rest of the ground around it was to be wet. Yet again, God delivered. The next morning, Gideon awoke to the ground soaked, yet the fleece was still as dry as it had been the night before. All of this though, was to prepare Gideon for what the Lord was about to ask of him.

Fast forward, and Gideon was marching with all of the men that he had gathered to fight the Midianites. The Lord came to Gideon and told Him that He had too many warriors with him- that if he fought with the amount of people that he had, that the Israelites would brag and say that they did it on their own. So God ordered that Gideon tell the ones who were scared and unsure about fighting that they were allowed to leave. When Gideon did this, he was left with 10,000 soldiers. However, the Lord was still not satisfied. The Lord told Gideon that there were still too many soldiers. So when the men stopped to get a drink from a stream, the Lord told Gideon to divide the men into those who scooped the water up with their hands and drank, and those who put their mouths to the stream and drank. Once they were divided, the Lord told Gideon to send the men who bent down and drank from the stream back home, and Gideon was then left with only 300 men to fight the horde of Midianites with.

So with all of this being said, I'm sure you're sitting there asking, "Okay Bri, what's your point here? Why're you telling me all of this? What am I supposed to gain here?" Well stay patient, young Padawan, because this is where the story gets to the point. For most people, this would be the time that they decided to tuck their tails and run, whether they actually admit it or not. Gideon started with 32,000 men. And God told him that was too many and if they wanted to get the desired reaction from the Israelites, the number of troops needed to be cut. Drastically. By the time it was all said and done, Gideon was down to 0.9% of the troops he started with, and yes you're reading that right. And the Midianite army was HUGE. The Bible says later that their camels were too numerous for Gideon to count. So basically, this was a worst-case scenario, nightmare situation. And God put Gideon in it ON PURPOSE. Things seemed to be headed straight for disaster.

But Gideon was not alone. Gideon had the favor and the will of God on his side and as cliche as it sounds, that's all you need sometimes. Later that night, the Lord came back to Gideon and told him that it was time to attack with his 300 men, and if he doubted Him, to go spy on the camp and listen in on the conversations that the soldiers were having. So Gideon went, and as God had said, he overheard two soldiers interpreting a dream, and they said that they believed that the dream meant that the Lord was giving Gideon victory over the Midianites. With this vote of confidence, Gideon went and rallied his troops, and he attacked and eventually ended up beating the Midianites with his 300 men. And when it was all said and done, the Israelites asked Gideon and his family to rule over the Israelites, but he refused and said, "I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The Lord will rule over you!"

So now, the real question becomes, "How does this apply to me?" And there's honestly multiple ways that you can apply the story of Gideon (or at least the beginnings of it) to your life. For starters, not many of us consider ourselves "qualified" to be a hero. Many of us are out here literally just trying to make it from day to day, living normal lives, trying to avoid the worst. Hardly any of us are Gladiators in training or getting ready for our first bout in The Hunger Games, and even though I've been a collegiate athlete I would hardly consider myself "battle ready". But Gideon is literally the embodiment of your "Zero to Hero" story. He wasn't a trained soldier. He was just a farmer trying to hide his family's crops from the enemy. He didn't become the hero until God told him that he was "The One". And even when God told him, he was beyond skeptical. He didn't truly believe that he had the talents and abilities to be the one to save Israel, and made God give him multiple signs before he believed him and was ready to go to action. And while many of us might not be the next great war hero, how many times do we doubt the plans and the actions that God calls us to do? How many times do we doubt that we are the more-than-capable heroes and heroines in our own story? How many times do we do just as Gideon does and make God prove himself over and over before we ever move towards His blessings?

The Answer: TOO MANY!!!!!

I know personally, I am so guilty of believing that I am going to screw something up and I'm going to somehow ruin the plan that God has set before me. I doubt myself and worry that I am not ready, or that God has somehow overestimated me and that I'm not up to the task that God has set me to. But I'm here to tell you that those are all lies and doubts put in place to keep you from reaching your full potential and all the amazing blessings that God has waiting on the other side of you having faith. And yes, there are times where His plan may seem challenging, or there are obstacles in the way that make it seem like what you've been called to do isn't going to work out. Look again to Gideon. He was reduced to .9% of the people he started with, and was expected to attack and win anyway! To any sane person, that seems like insanity and a good time to call the whole thing off. But Gideon didn't, and he reaped the rewards of trusting that God was on his side and that He was going to deliver. We have to follow the same example. Even when the situation seems hopeless and like we are going against everything that seems sane... if God has called us to it, He will pull us through it. And yes, it may take a monumental amount of trust and an even larger amount of faith, but those times lead to the best testimonies and the greatest amount of growth... not the mention the blessings will be greater than you could ever imagine. So today, I challenge you to trust God. Hear where He is calling you. Remove the doubts and all of the things that say you aren't enough (because God has given you everything you need to THRIVE, and YOU ARE ENOUGH). And DARE TO BE THE HERO. Have hero-sized faith and let nothing get in the way of God's calling on your life or the blessings He has in store for you this year!

Also, I put this picture at the bottom because I found it on Pinterest earlier today and couldn't help but include it, especially since I planned to write this post last night and this showed up on my feed this morning! So Love y'all and dare to BE!!