Ready to trim back the troops?

I mentioned earlier, here, that I started a Bible study on Gideon.  It is so good and is exactly what I needed at this point.  Priscilla Shirer is amazing at taking the Bible and applying it to your life right at this moment.  The part of the study that is speaking to me is when God stripped Gideon of most of his soldiers before they were to fight the Midianites.

 Judges 7:2 says, The Lord said to Gideon, "You have too many people for Me to hand the Midianites over to you, or else Israel might brag: 'I did it myself.'"

I love that God needed to make it clear that HE would be destroying the Midianites, not the Israelites, they were just a vessel in which God used for HIS victory!

What I love about Gideon is that he wasn't too proud to admit he was scared to fight the Midianites.  I'm sure he tried to find comfort in his soldiers...ALL 32,000 of them.  It does often make things easier when we have back-up, when we don't feel so alone.  It would be very normal for Gideon to look for support from the very men who would be fighting on his side.  But God doesn't "do normal", if HE did where would our faith come in, how could we see HIM amongst the normal, it would be hard to decipher how God plays out in our daily lives.

I'm a take charge type of person, and if I commit to something then I see it through to completion.  I'm not a fan of doing "just enough", I don't see the point.  However, that's not to say there is anything wrong with someone who is able to release control or doesn't get too caught up in the details.  I imagine that to be such a relaxing way to live.

So when God takes the 32,000 down to a mere 300....I am in complete AWE!!!  This fight will be on God's terms and there will be no mistake of who is in CONTROL!!!  It is easy to say, "This is what I want in my life!"  But when God asks me to trim back my "troops" the reality of actually doing it becomes difficult.  I start to question if it is necessary, and my controlling nature rears its ugly head and wants a role in the plan.  Because 32,000 down to 300 is a HUGE difference, it isn't just rearranging the "troops" I already have, or giving a few "troops" away and still keeping the majority of what I have...it is making a VAST CHANGE.

The great thing about Gideon's story is...GOD WINS!!!  We know the ending, and God can WIN at the end of my story too...if I trim back my troops!!!  Are you ready?

Until we meet again,

Heather