“But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?  Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’  But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”–Judges 6:13

An angel of the Lord has shown up and found Gideon, who incidentally is hiding from the Midianites.  The angel addressed Gideon as a “mighty warrior!”  Who would have thought?  Gideon, a mighty warrior, the least in his tribe, hiding from the enemy.  God saw what Gideon couldn’t see.

And what did Gideon think of God at that time?  To summarize his thoughts consider the his reply to the angel of the Lord:

1.  The Lord is not with us.

2.  The Lord is no longer working wonders as he once did.

3.  The Lord has abandoned us.

4.  The Lord has turned us over to the enemy.

Only God would approach someone who thought that about Him and called him a mighty warrior!  Only God would address a sheepish, faith-less, reluctant wheat thresher as a mighty warrior!

This forces two questions:

What does God see in you that you do not see in yourself?  What is His perspective on your predicament?  What is His plan for your future?

And a second question:  What does God see in your neighbor, coworker, friend or family member that you don’t see in them.   Where you see a burden, God sees a blessing.  Where you see faults, God sees future.  Where you see a sinner, God sees a saint.

You need to have an honest conversation with God today.  He can handle your feelings, is not intimidated by your struggles.

If you had interviewed Gideon for a job, and he would have talked that way to you (and about you), his future boss, you would have kept looking.

In tomorrow’s post we’ll discover God’s response to Gideon.  It will blow your mind!  (And give us insight into who the angel of the Lord might be!)