By: Dave Cole
If you were going to pick a person to go out and deliver a nation from the hands of the enemy, would you even consider choosing one of the weakest members of the country, or would you pick a man of valor?
What’s valor mean you might ask? According to Webster: strength of mind or spirit that enables a man to encounter danger with firmness; personal bravery; heroism.
Here’s another question: What and whom do you see yourself as?
And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “The Lord is with you, You Mighty Man of Valor.” And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this Might of Yours and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you.” And Gideon said to him, “Pray, Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”
Now here we have Gideon, the man who considered himself the weakest of the weak, and the Angel of the Lord appears to him and says: you’re the man, you are a man of personal bravery and of heroism….you are a man that we see as being one who can encounter danger with firmness. Everyone else, including himself, saw Gideon as being a coward. No one in their right mind would even consider suggesting that he would be a candidate for being a hero.
Why, he was nothing more to most folks…..and himself….. as being a common ordinary laborer who’s job was to thresh out wheat.
Lowly and weak.
That’s what Gideon saw when he looked inside himself and that’s what his outer life really was. Lowly and weak.
Gideon had never done a single thing in his life up to that point that gave any indication that he was or could be a man of valor. His choice in life was to be a wheat thresher and a weak one at that, for that is all he considered himself to be.
Now Israel was in trouble and they needed a hero, someone who was already brave and strong and had the courage to lead them out of fear of the Midianites. Gideon was the last person a nation needed and could count on. But, God picked Gideon to lead the revolt against Midian and their prophets of Baal.
What is most interesting is not that God picked Gideon, but in How He Saw Gideon as being. When God looked at Gideon, He didn’t see a weak lowly wheat thresher, a coward and a man of timidity. God saw Gideon as a Mighty Man of Valor. Not just a man of valor, but a Mighty One at that!
And I’m here to tell you today, that it really doesn’t matter who you see yourself as being, or where you are in life. What is so much more important is: What God sees you as being.
Now you’ve just been visited by a priest of God who is looking at you and seeing a Mighty Man (or woman) of Valor. I’m not seeing what you think you might be, I’m seeing what you can and could become. I’m seeing someone who is very special in God’s eyes.
God doesn’t see you as being weak or timid or cowardly. My friend, you already are someone whether you believe it or not. You are a mighty man of valor and you have within you the capacity to do whatever your mission here on earth is.
Perhaps you should start seeing yourself as you are being seen because I’ll promise you this, if in fact a real Angel of the Lord appears to you, you won’t find him calling you weak and lowly…..you will find him calling you Mighty and Strong and a Man of Valor.
Now go in this Might of Yours and do whatever you are called to do.
