One of Satan’s primary strategies against God’s people is accusation.  In fact, he is called “the accuser of the brethren” in Revelation 12.  He is shown to accuse us before God at every opportunity.  He also accuses us through hurtful people in our lives and he accuses us to ourselves in our thought life.

He accuses us in the sense that we often have thoughts that we are not worthy or not qualified for the things God is calling us to.  Perhaps, we have thought of volunteering for some ministry role but have quickly decided we didn’t know enough, weren’t gifted enough, weren’t spiritual enough, or whatever.  We quickly talked ourselves out of saying “yes” to an invitation to serve in an important role or of saying yes to a role that we simply knew was needing to be filled.

Churches often need people to step up and serve in roles they have not served in before – camp counselors, marriage mentors, small group leaders, coordinators, table leaders, etc., but no one steps up because they don’t feel qualified.  At other times, we may feel prompted to talk to someone about Jesus, but that little voice tells us we don’t know enough Bible or we won’t know what to say, or we will embarrass ourselves and Jesus.  At other times, we feel prompted to talk to someone about the destructive direction of their life, but then the voice convinces us that our own life is such a mess, who are we to talk to them about their bad decisions?

The voice of the accuser constantly insists we are not enough, we don’t know enough, we aren’t spiritual enough, and are doomed to fail.  His goal is to limit us, discourage us, and disempower us.   But God has always called the weak, the unlikely, the inexperienced, and the reluctant to greatness. One of my favorites is Gideon.

In Judges 6, Israel was under the boot of Midian.  Because of their rebellion and idolatry, God had lifted his hand of protection and left them to the oppression of their enemies. Because of their suffering, Israel called out to God for deliverance.  God answered and the text says:

“Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior” (Judges 6:11-13). Then the Lord said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?”

The angel of the Lord called Gideon a mighty warrior.  As we read the text, it is clear that is how God saw him, not how Gideon saw himself. In response to God’s call, Gideon described himself as a man whose clan was the weakest in Manasseh and he was the least in his family.  In other words, ”I’m not qualified to be a warrior or a leader.  I’m a nobody.”  There is no indication that Gideon was a leader among his people or that he had any training in warfare.  God just showed up and told him to go deliver Israel from Midian.

It’s important to note that he told Gideon to go “in the strength he had.”  He didn’t tell him to wait until he was ready or until he had years of leadership training.  In essence, he was telling Gideon to go as he was and God would make up for whatever he lacked. 

God most often picks the inexperienced and the uncertain because those men and women are forced to depend on God, not on themselves.  They will listen to him and often use God’s unorthodox methods because they don’t already have their own way of doing what God is calling them to do. In our weakness, God gets the glory.

Another important point this text reveals is that we don’t always have to be full of faith to be used by God. Gideon was cautious. He was uncertain…not about God, but about himself.  He asked for signs to confirm it was God who was talking to him rather than Satan or his own imaginations.  In the same chapter, the angel who had brought the word of the Lord to Gideon, touched an offering Gideon has placed before him with the tip of his staff and it burst into flame as the angel disappeared.  Gideon cried out that he had seen the face of the Lord.  He apparently expected to die, because God immediately spoke to him saying, “Peace. Do not be afraid. You are not going to die” (Jgs. 6:23). 

God’s first command was for Gideon to tear down a nearby altar to Baal and the Asherah pole that was next to it, build a proper altar, and sacrifice a bull to the Lord.   Gideon took some men and went to do as the Lord commanded, but did so at night because “he was afraid of his father and the townspeople.”  So he obeyed the Lord, but he did so in the face of his own fear.  God did not rebuke him.  Gideon was going in the strength he had.  When we feel nervous and insecure as we try to follow God’s leading and his call, the enemy will rush into to rebuke us for a lack of faith.  But God was pleased with is obedience, even though his faith was not fully formed.

After that incident, Gideon asked for another sign that God was truly going to use him to deliver Israel from Midian.  He determined to place a wool fleece on the threshing floor at night.  He asked God to see to it that in the morning the fleece would be soaked with dew and the ground would be dry.  In fact, that is what God did.  But, just to prove this was not meteorological anomaly, he asked God to reverse the procedure the next night.  In the morning the fleece was dry and the ground was soaked. 

Then, as Midian and Israel camped across from one another and the first battle loomed, God said to Gideon, “If you are afraid to attack, go down to their camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying.  Then you will be encouraged.” Again, God took note of Gideon’s insecurity and met his need for encouragement.  As you read Judges 7, you will see the unorthodox strategy that God used to defeat the Midianites. Gideon goes on to be a judge of Israel and grew in confidence as God gave him future victories.

My point is this.  When we sense God’s call on or lives or feel his prompting to let him use us in some way, we need to recall that, in most cases, willingness, even when coupled with fear and insecurity, is all God is asking.  Then he steps in and makes up for our lack.  The adventure of faith is seeing God come through, but we will never see it if we never place ourselves in uncertain situations. 

Don’t let the accusations from the enemy keep you from saying “yes.”  Ask for some kind of confirmation, if you like, that God is calling you to that moment or to that ministry.  God will not be offended because we want to be sure we are following his leading not the leading of the flesh. But don’t let the devil talk you out of your destiny that God established for you before the creation of the world.  Make up your mind.  The next time God calls and we feel totally unqualified, say “yes” anyway.  You will be saying “yes” to God and “no” to Satan.

Imagine Israel on the day Moses climbed Mt. Nebo and disappeared from their sight. He died there alone with the Lord and the Lord buried him in an unknown place. From the moment God had called them out of Egypt, Moses had been their leader. For forty years they had known no other “father” to whom God would speak face-to-face and direct this fledgling nation. Of course, there had been tense moments when a few others thought they might be more qualified to lead Israel than Moses, but God usually sorted that out quickly. For forty years they had wandered through dessert wastelands until every adult of the unbelieving generation that had refused to enter the promised land had died except for Joshua and Caleb who were the two spies that had believed God (see Numbers 13).

Suddenly, the familiar face, the familiar robes, and voice of Moses were taken from them. The nation still stood on the east side of the Jordan and most of them must have wondered what they would do now? In Joshua 1, we are told that God appointed Joshua, who had been an aide to Moses, to now lead this nation. Not only was he to lead the nation, but he was to lead the nation across the Jordon to take the land God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. The same fierce tribes and “giants” that inhabited the land when Israel had failed their test of faith forty years earlier were still there. How could it be different now?

The same theme that ran through Numbers 13, when God first commanded the Hebrews to take the land, rang out again with Joshua. “As I was with Moses, I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you…Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you where ever you go” (Josh. 1:9). In every circumstance of life, that is our promise and that is our confidence. The writer of Hebrews also said, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me’” (Hey. 13:5-6).

Have you ever noticed how much God wants to be with his people? In the beginning, he walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. He delivered the Hebrews from Egypt so that he could meet them at Sinai and be their God. After Sinai, he had Moses construct the Tent of Meeting where the people of God could encounter his presence. Then his glory filled the temple in the days of Solomon. Finally, Jesus came in the flesh – Emmanuel or “God with us.” Then his Spirit began to take up residence in us and finally, Jesus will return to get us and so we will ever be with him. God has gone to great lengths to be with his people.

The truth is that the Lord loves us and is always aware of us and with us. His promise is that he will always go with us…if we want him to. Jesus said that he would be with use even to the end of the age and Paul declared, “If God is for us, who can stand against us? (Rom.8:31). Our faith to face the world, evil people, disease, war, or famine is the promise that God is with us. Sometimes we sense his presence, see his hand at work, or witness a miracle. But he is also with us and for us when we do not see him or hear him or sense him. That is the essence of faith. If he said he would never leave, then I believe he is with me. If he is with me, then I need not fear any circumstance. The Father promised it, Jesus promised it, and the Holy Spirit demonstrates it by his presence in each of us.

And yet, how quickly do we start to believe that God is not there for us, or that he has abandoned ua, or that he doesn’t care about us when trouble comes? Those are the whispers of Satan. Many believers have been taught directly or indirectly that God has promised us a trouble-free life or at least when trouble comes it will be short-lived and relatively easy. So, when we get a bad report from the doctor, when we lose the job we really needed, and then get turned down interview after interview, we may feel as if God has betrayed us. When our marriage fails or our kid gets hooked on drugs, we may feel as if God has not done his job. When our prayer that we have prayed for ten years still seems to go unanswered, we may feel as if God has broken his word. In this moments, we can feel like orphans who are totally on our own with no one else to look out for us.

But God has never promised us a trouble-free life or a disappointment-free life. What he says is that in this world, we will have trouble. But he also says he will be with us in the trouble and walk us through the trouble. He did not keep Daniel out of the lion’s den, he simply kept the mouths of the lions shut. He did not keep Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego out of the fire, but met them in the fire. Paul describes God as the God of all comfort who comforts us in all of our troubles. We meet God in the midst of trouble more often than in the midst of peace and prosperity. It is In the midst of trouble that we truly discover who God is.

The key is to look for the hand of God in the midst of our loss, our disappointment, or our discouragement, We may see the han in a big way, but more often we see it in many small ways…often through the prayers, concern, and kindness of people that God puts around us in that moment. We see it in his grace that subtly sustains us in long nights in hospital rooms, or on long nights while we wonder where a child has gone. We see it at the cemetery when a prayer for physical healing has gone unanswered but somehow we can manage a smile, despite it all.

There were times in scripture where God showed up in big ways and defeated entire armies in a supernatural moment or divided the Red Sea. But there were other times when he simply provided a little water and bread…just enough to get someone to their next appointment. Sometimes the prayer was answered as soon as it was uttered, but at other times, a promised son was not born for 25 years. In every case, God was aware and had a plan…even when some of God’s people thought he had forgotten them.

The declaration of faith is that God is with us, he will never leave us, and that God is good. And no matter the circumstance, he will always express his goodness towards us. Sometimes, when trying too find that faith, our prayer will be, “Lord I believe, but help my unbelief.” But when we are in the midst of something we don’t understand, we must stand on the things we do know, not the things we don’t know.

Decide before the trouble comes that no matter what, God is with you and will walk you through the valley, even if you can’t see the path. King David walked down many dark valleys in his life and, in reflection, he wrote, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me…surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my like…” (Ps. 23:4,6). May we stand on that truth when there is noting else to stand on.