Our Daily Bread is a devotional that I follow. Some days it seems totally irrelevant to my life, other days spot on. Today is one of the latter. Today’s verse has to do with how God used Gideon for his purposes and how he provided Gideon with the necessary resources. It caused me to reflect upon the people who God brought into my life while in prison and how he used them and now how he is using me in other peoples lives. This comes at a time when I was feeling a bit down and really having some difficulty seeing any purpose to my existence. This comes to me today as I am having a conversation with a former customer, someone who had a website here more than a decade ago, and who is going through some difficult mental issues primarily with anxiety. Now I know that all the years I suffered with anxiety do have some purpose because otherwise I could not identify with what this person is going through.
Judges 6:11-16 King James Version (KJV)
11 And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
12 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.
13 And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
14 And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?
15 And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.
16 And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.