Not strong enough.

Wow did Peter really just get defeated? He might say it was lack of training or even that his sword wasn't a match for his opponents. Have you ever felt like that? Set up to fail? Not a chance in the world? Sounds familar to the story of Gideon in the Bible.

Gideon was a man in the Bible you can read the whole story in the book of Judges chapters 6 to 8. Basically though he was...well...scared. His family were the least powerful in the whole of Israel and he was the weakest in his family. He was given a job to defend the hidden food which would never be found anyway. His country (Israel) wern't on speaking terms with God anymore because of the choices they had made and so God had not stopped the Midianites from taking all their food. It was a situation very much similar to that of the story of A Bugs Life (remember with the ants and the grasshoppers). The Israelites picked the food and the Midianites ate it - except the very small amount hidden in a cave that Gideon was put in charge of.

God hadn't given up on Israel he was just waiting for the right moment to remind them of himself and the right moment was when Gideon was around. God chose Gideon to lead an army to defeat the Midiantites. He asked Gideon to lead the army, Gideon didn't believe that God would really choose him. Afterall he was terrified of anything! Yet God had, then God took away his big army and left him with only 300 men when the Midianite army was over 100,000 strong! Once he had his 300 hundred God instructed him that they would take no weapons, just a glass lantern and a trumpet! You see it wasn't about how many soldiers he had or even their weapons. What mattered was that Gideon stopped trusting in his own strength and started to trust in God's. They won, by Gods plan and by following what he told them to do Gideon led the 300 men to victory!

Next time you feel like the odds are against you remember if you are doing what God wants you to do, then he is with you. If he is with you, then nothing can stop you.

To help you think about that a bit more why not watch this video below and download it from here.