The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“Then the Lord said to Gideon, ‘The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. So it shall be that he of whom I say to you, “This one shall go with you,” he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, “This one shall not go with you,” he shall not go.”’”

—Judges 7:4

The Lord called Gideon to free his people from the oppression of the Midianites. They were severely outnumbered before they even started; the Midianites had 135,000 warriors and the Israelites only 32,000.

The Lord, however, said they had too many men and proceeded to whittle the army down to 10,000.

Can you imagine being Gideon and looking at those numbers? That’s pretty terrible odds.

Then God said they still had too many and cut that number down further to 300 men . . . 300 against 135,000.

This is the kind of battle many of us would advise against or refuse to join. It looked hopeless.

But the Lord wants us to trust him instead of numbers or worldly might. He uses the foolish to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27).

The battle belongs to the Lord, and we don’t have to fear even against impossible odds (2 Chronicles 20:15).

He doesn’t need us to have enough power, time, talent, strength, intelligence, or any other resource. He just needs us to face the battle he’s given us in obedience and confidence in him. 

Don’t look at the odds. Look at God.

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