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Writer's pictureImmanuel Baptist Church

Nov 24 Devotion: When God Gets All The Glory

WHEN GOD GETS ALL THE GLORY!

Judges 7:2 And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mineown hand hath saved me.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

[10] Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Today, in visiting with a brother in Christ that was in the hospital, we started talking about the Gideon Bibles that are in most hospitals and then the conversation turned to this passage of Scripture. After talking about the Lord and this great victory God gave HIS people, the Lord directed me to this thought and passage for today. Praise the Lord!

The Midianites were a fierce enemy that had come up against the nation of Israel. They had already lost against them previously and they were constantly tormenting God’s people; they were an enemy that showed no mercy. Now, God was calling a man by the name of Gideon to lead HIS people to war once more, but this time to defeat the Midianites. This brought great fear in the hearts of the people and rather than telling Gideon that HE was going to send him more men, the LORD told him he had too many men for victory! This is not what Gideon had expected to hear from the LORD, I’m sure. This battle with the Midianite army is a beautiful picture of how God brings deliverance for HIS people. We see in our text that God delivers through our weaknesses rather than our strengths. The LORD has to position HIS children in such a way that their only hope for victory is through HIM and HIM alone. Our strengths are usually our greatest downfalls because we start to rely upon them. Knowing this, God will rip them out from under us in order to cause us to depend solely upon HIS strength to make it through. Often times we have too much going for us for God to help us; if we don’t need HIM we won’t depend on HIM!

Friend, we cannot receive a miracle when we are strong, and the trophies of God’s victories are fashioned in the place of weakness. Gideon had assembled all the men of war that he possibly could and they totaled 32,000, which, in Gideon’s eyes was still no match against the Midianite army. Yet, God told him that he had too many and to reduce the number down to 10,000 men. When you are outnumbered, you don’t reduce your army by 22,000 men do you? The LORD didn’t stop there, HE went further and reduced Gideon’s men all the way down to 300 men. In the natural realm, this would seem irrational but, in the heavenly realm, this is an opportunity for the supernatural. What was God doing? HE was making them weak so, HE could be strong! Hallelujah! God’s greatest work in your life will be when you are at your weakest, outnumbered, out powered and out matched! It’s only when we are placed in such a vulnerable, uncontrolled situation that God can take over because, we have no alternative! This is When God Gets All The Glory! Here in our text, lies one of the greatest truths for the Christian, get ahold of this: God cannot get the glory when we are strong, doing things our way in our own strength.

Maybe you are facing a battle today that you are trying to fight in your own strength, your own resources and wisdom. It does not matter the amount of strength that you have, even if it were 32,000 strong men, you will never win apart from God. This is what the LORD is trying to show us through the life of Gideon; it’s not in numbers that battles are won, but rather, it’s in HIM! Jesus is the strong ONE and HEneeds no army to bring you to victory. Trust Jesus in your battle today and remove yourself completely. Your strength or pride could be the very thing that is keeping God from moving on your behalf. Maybe you are fighting your own battles rather than casting yourself into the mighty arms of the Living God. It’s only through your weakness that HE can be strong; your weakness is HIS strength.

Bro. Lawrence Longworth

Isaiah 61:1 “the opening of the prison to them that are bound;”

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