It takes a while for Gideon to fully trust the Lord. He questions, he doubts, he wants proof. He wants to be certain that it is really the Lord's voice calling out to him. There is nothing wrong with asking God for a sign. Otherwise, how can we be certain that the voice we are hearing in our hearts is truly coming from the Lord? I actually went to talk to a priest about this a couple of weeks ago. I was very worried about my blog. I felt a big responsibility that what I was writing was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit. I wanted to be certain that I was not on the wrong path. He told me that the key to knowing whether the words were inspired by the Holy Spirit was humility. He told me to remain humble. If I allowed pride to invade my thoughts, then those thoughts were not coming from the Holy Spirit. But if I wrote with humility, then I didn't have anything to worry about. Humility comes from God. Pride comes from that other person which I will refer to in this blog as the enemy.
God has no qualms about giving Gideon a sign. The angel makes fire spring from a rock and then he vanishes from Gideon's sight. You would think this is enough proof but Gideon keeps asking the Lord for more proof. He puts the Lord to the test not once, not twice, but three times. It's fine to put the Lord to the test but we better be ready because God may repay us by putting us to the test. That is exactly what happened to Gideon. After the Lord proved to him without a doubt that it was indeed the Lord calling upon Gideon, the Lord tested Gideon's trust. Gideon had put together an army of 30,000 men to fight the Midianites. But the Lord doesn't want the Israelites to have a sense of pride that they were the ones that defeated the Midianites. He wants the Israelites to remain humble and give God the credit. He wants it to be clear that they know the victory came from God. So what does he do? He makes Gideon reduce his army to just 300 men. Now, that is a true test of trust. But Gideon trusted, and because of his trust, the Lord was able to accomplish great things through Gideon.
Are we willing to place our trust fully in the Lord to the point that we will do whatever He asks of us? Do we trust that He will win the victory for us? No matter how small the army, the Lord will gain the victory. No matter how small we feel, the Lord will win the victory. All we need to do is remain humble and let God lead the way. Place your trust in God and He will be able to accomplish great things through you.
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