“When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
The story of Kurt Warner is one of the best I have ever heard of. The documentary movie about his rise to Hall of Fame status is really good as well. He was an exceptional athlete that rose to the level of trying out for the NFL as quarterback. After being cut, we find that Kurt Warner had fallen to working at a local grocery store feeling like life was over. I won’t spoil the story but we know the end, he takes his team to the super bowl and later was honored as a member of the Football Hall of Fame. Kurt was also a Christian and he believed the Lord had something else for him other than being a grocery store employee.
In the verse above, the Lord had given Israel into the hands of the Midianites because they did evil in the sight of the Lord again. For seven years, He gave them into their hands. Because of the extreme way the Midianites impoverished the Israelites, the people cried out to the Lord. The Lord’s response was to send a prophet to them and read the Israelites their own resume. This was not a stellar review I might say. The last line the prophet told Israel was, “…you have not listened to me.” At this point, one would think the story is over and we can close the book on the Israelites. After a stern rebuke from a prophet of God, one can almost taste the despair and rejection.
The next verses tell us that an angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon while threshing wheat in a wine press hiding from the Midianites. His opening statement is, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” There was no mighty trumpet on a high hill where the angel appeared. No splash of great news from the leaders and the prophet that the Lord was on His way and everyone will all be saved. No, the Lord came to a man hiding in a winepress threshing wheat. A nobody in the worlds eyes and least in his own family. His name was Gideon.
Being who he was, his first remark to the angel was one we all would say as well, “Pardon me…but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?…The Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hands of Midian.” Rebuking Gideon, the Lord says, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?” Again Gideon remarks, “Pardon me…but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family?” The Lord answered , “I will be with you, you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”
We all, at one time or the other, have a bad habit of thinking too low of ourselves. We get caught up in the “poor me” syndrome or the “wo is me” attitude and become defeated before we even start. Gideon was at this point. He had already accepted the fact that life was hard and there was no way out. The national news had just broadcasted the prophets rebuke from the Lord and the hope of getting out of this tail spin had flown away along with every dream of a better life. Who was Gideon that he was going to change anything at all? Then the LORD showed up.
You might be thinking just like Gideon and your life is not a happy place. The national news is bleak and depressing so you find yourself hiding from reality. You have accepted the new normal of depression and self pity. However, just like there is more to the story of Gideon, we will soon find out that the Lord has more for you as well. He has not forgotten you and you cannot hide from Him either. He has not abandoned you despite your natural viewpoint. Yes the Lord has a timetable that He is working with and just because the current state of things is not very good, we can rest in the promise of the Lord when He come to us in our depressed state and tells us, “Hello mighty warrior!” In that grocery store sweeping the floor, Kurt Warner was not a Hall of Fame quarterback yet and he did not think he would even be one. God has your future in His hand and it is not the failure of life you think it will be. You are a mighty warrior.
Let It Go 
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