Still prepping for paint and a chit chat 🙂 An ordinary man ~ Gideon

Hebrews 11:32-33

³² And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 

I find the “Hall of the Heroes’ of Faith” in Hebrews chapter 11, interesting because here, God never mentions their sins.

God only tells us about their accomplishments through faith… He never mentions their flaws or their shortcomings (although other places do).

But today I want us to notice how God effectively changed a culture through one man… and that man’s name is Gideon. For Gideon was willing to stand in the gap and make a difference.

Now, Gideon wasn’t perfect, but God saw the potential in him.  

You can read about Gideon in Judges chapter 6… Now, Gideon’s world was thoroughly messed up.

It had been two hundred years since Israel had seen the walls of Jericho fall by the power of God. Yet things hadn’t changed because they didn’t finish the job. God told Israel to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan, yet Israel had only partially obeyed. And as a result, the Canaanites had come back and grown stronger. Until ultimately, they were ruling over them. 

Now we find the Israelites are devastated. They’re hungry, hurting, and humiliated, and so they started calling on God.

And God answers their cry in the form of Gideon... An ordinary man.

So, the Lord appears to him and says, “The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior.” But Gideon didn’t see himself as a valiant warrior and he replies back to the Lord: ¹⁵ “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.”

You see, God goes out of His way to find ordinary people so that “He” gets the glory. God often uses the unqualified to do the unexpected and this gives hope to those of us who are on the ordinary side.

The Lord can change the world with an ordinary person who will say, “Lord, I am willing to be that person.”

Remember, Life Happens…

And our God can do a lot with a little.

And God can do a lot with you.

The question you must ask yourselves is: Are you willing to step forward?