I think most everyone knows the story of Gideon in Judges chapter 7. Gideon sets out to defeat the Midianites with 32,000 people. God tells Gideon that he has too many men, and so he tells all the men who are afraid to leave. 22,000 leave, giving Gideon only 10,000 men. God again tells Gideon he has too many men, so they test them by having them take a drink of water to see how they drink it. The men who cupped the water in their hands were kept and the rest were sent home, dwindling Gideon’s army down to 300. This satisfied God and so the Israelite’s were off to war. As the story goes Gideon and his 300 men are victorious.
I say all of this to say that God is able to do anything he wants, yet he chooses to allow us to make our own choices. This means that there are times when we choose wrong and miss out on the things God wants us to experience. Whenever we choose wrong we call this sin. Sin is selfishness at its very core. When we sin, it is because we think our way is better. God had Gideon get rid of most of his army so that Gideon would be weak and reliant on God’s plan. God desires the same humility in us, so that we will submit to His plan, rather than our own. When were weak, God is at His strongest in us.
I pray that God would teach me to be weak, able to submit myself under His authority and the authority that He has placed over me. My desire is to be more like Christ, which means I must do all things according to the will of Him who has sent me.
