“And the Lord said to him, surely I will be with you…” Judges 6:16
The more years I add to this life the more I realize that at the core of my being simply rests a scared young child. Each time I’m asked to speak publicly the emotions of that child surface, sharing fear, trepidation, and even at times, fright. As I take seminary exams and submit lengthy graduate level papers, that same child fears the resulting grade, a flashback to so many of the same formulative occurrences from years past in earlier years of school. As when it’s time to take the stage and preach the Word of God, that young child reminds me of the same nerves that caused the butterflies to take flight as I was running onto the football field on a balmy September Friday night. You see, at my core, not much has changed in my personal ability to grow my self-confidence. But what has changed is my ability to do all things that God calls me to do, not through my own strength, but through His. It has taken me many days to learn this simple fact, it is not about self-confidence…it’s all about God-confidence.
And maybe nowhere will you see this truth principle exemplified more than in the story of the fifth Judge, Gideon. From the moment the Lord calls upon Gideon to free the disobedient, idolatrous Israelites from their Midianite persecuters, we find Gideon struggling to establish just where his confidence lies. He asks the Lord for not just one, not just two, but three miraculous confirmations to prove His Godly identity. First by seeing his offering engulfed in fire from a rock, then to the redundance of the fleece and the dew, you can actually feel Gideon finding his way outside of his own scared little child that lied within, to seeing and eventually believing that his confidence could not lie in himself, but only in the Lord who was constantly proving Himself beyond capable. God grew Gideon out of the idea of self-confidence one small step at a time until God would eventually ask him for an act of obedience that would require all of those moments combined.
Imagine being a general and leading a group of 300 soldiers against an army of 135,000. Just the mere utterance of it sounds like sealing your own death warrant. Yet this is the final request of Gideon as God is teaching him just where his confidence should lie. And as we see God ironically whittle down Gideon’s army from 22,000 to 10,000 to a scant 300, we see all reason for his self-confidence to be tossed to the wayside, leaving Gideon no doubt as to the only place his confidence and hope of victory can lie…in the Lord and the Lord alone. What an enlightening journey God allows us in Judges chapter 6 as we read through just one of the 1,189 chapters God’s Word contains. It boldly speaks a Godly truth…only after we are truly stripped of the false idea of self-confidence can we begin to be tools used by the Lord.
If you’re honest with yourself today, I bet that scared young child surfaces within you more often than you care for. You see, there is arrested development when it comes to our spiritual growth which spurs a fact. We cannot grow and mature spiritually on our own. Spiritual growth only comes from gleaning from the Words the Lord speaks to you, studying and meditating upon those Words, and then acting in obedience to those Words no matter what they may ask or demand of you. You see, spiritual growth comes through using your faith in Almighty God. And faith is a muscle only grown by using it at regular intervals. And folks, God will start you out by testing your faith in small ways so that He can display His power, might, and provision. And the more you see His hands work, believing and trusting in them more and more, He will ask you to do more. Just in the same way that we see Gideon grown from a timid wheat thresher hiding in a lowly winepress, to a mighty warrior routing powerful armies with only 300 men. And folks, God greatly desires to use you in the same way.
But the first step lies directly within your chest and directly within your own power. And it all revolves around what you think of yourself. God cannot use prideful, arrogant, egotistical, overly self-confident people. Why? Well, those people have already found the god they are intent on hearing and serving. And it’s themselves. You see, only after we come to terms with our true capabilities and limitations will we ever be of use to the Lord. For it is only when we make ourselves small that God can truly become large in our lives. The apostle John tells us in John 15:15 that we can do nothing apart from abiding in Christ. Yet in Philippians 4:13 the apostle Paul tells us of his own Gideon journey with the Lord. That he has lived with much and lived with little. He has trusted himself and he has trusted Christ. And Paul’s personal spiritual conclusion? “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Brothers and sisters, a decision lies before you today. And it is one that asks where your confidence truly lies. If it lies in yourself, you are buying into the idea that your self-confidence will take you where God desires you to go. Friends, this will never deliver you to God’s intended destination for your life. You can do nothing on your own without absolute dependence and faithful confidence in Jesus Christ. But if you can get beyond yourself, realizing that you can do nothing in your own power and confidence, you are well on your way. That is, you are well on your way to Christ allowing you to do powerful and miraculous things for Him, in His name, and for His kingdom. For you and every believer that calls upon the strength of Christ the Lord, can indeed do all things, not through self-confidence, but in God-confidence.
Blessings on your journey today with Jesus ~ Dan
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
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