Go In The Strength You Have

Judges 6:14, 16 ¹⁴ The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” ¹⁶ The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” 

There is often a tension between what we do and what someone else does in our lives. We want our freedom, but we know we can’t do it all on our own. We don’t like the rules, but we want other people to keep them when our comforts are intruded on by their freedom.
Often in relationships we don’t have clear, clean lines between what we do and are responsible for and what others do and are responsible for. We tend to either take on more resonsibility that is correct or we shirk our responsibilty blaming other people. Few people have this boundary business balanced in their lives.
In our passage today from the book of Judges, the leader named Gideon is told to lead the people of Israel. They are in a terrible state, having rebelled for seven years and received the promised discipline from the LORD. The LORD used the other nations to wake them up.
And now the LORD tells Gideon “the LORD is with you.” And Gideon questions, if the LORD is with us, why are we in such a mess? He concludes the LORD has abandoned us.
Then the LORD tells him to “go in the strength you have.” I’m not so sure Gideon had much strength at this point. He feels totally inadequate for the task at hand. He has no natural power or ability. He has no place in the social structure that would allow him to lead.
So after he admits this, the LORD promises His presence with them. He promises to fight that battle and strike down the enemy. It is not up to Gideon to muster enough strength to win the battle. The LORD has this covered!
It can be very hard to trust the LORD in difficult circumstances. But if we hear Him speaking, we can trust that He will accomplish what He has promised.
Just so you know, obedience gets Gideon in temporary hot water. The other people don’t like the fact that he destroys their idol and their altar. They want his head. Obedience can bring increased pressure. Be ready for it. Expect it. It is coming.