Scripture for Study and Encouragement: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Faith is about measuring your potential, not on the basis of your natural gifts
and experience, but in the surety of God’s presence and promises.

It is almost a humorous story. It’s found in Judges 6:11–18:

Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.” Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the LORD said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.” Then he said to Him, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who talk with me. Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You and bring out my offering and set it before You.” And He said, “I will wait until you come back.”

God approaches Gideon to call him to lead Israel in a very important battle and calls him a “mighty man of valor.” Where does he find this “mighty man”? He finds him threshing wheat in a winepress. He’s doing something indoors that you normally do outdoors because he is afraid of the very people whom God is going to call him to attack! God calls him a mighty man not because of Gideon’s natural strength and courage, but because of what Gideon will be able to do in the power that God will give him. We know this is true because God begins his statement with these words: “The Lord is with you.” Poor fearful Gideon even questions that.

Then Gideon essentially says: “God, you must have the wrong address. I’m the least son of the most inconsequential tribe in all of Israel. How in the world do you expect me to save Israel?” As this statement reveals, Gideon both misunderstands who he is and who God is. If you fail to remember who God is in his power, glory, and grace, and you forget who you are as a child in his family, you will always mismeasure your potential to do what God has called you to do. You will measure your capability based on your natural gifts and the size of whatever it is that God has chosen you to face. Thankfully, since God is with you, you have been blessed with wisdom and power beyond your own that give you potential you would not have on your own.

Adapted and modified excerpts from Paul David Tripp, 40 Days of Faith
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.