Have you ever felt unqualified to do something? In life, God will position us before opportunities we don’t feel qualified to step into, but that’s precisely why God chose you.

God doesn’t always call the qualified, but He always qualifies the called.

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

God frequently leads us to do things that are bigger than us so that we will humble ourselves and call out to Him as His power works through us.

Every step of faith is supplied by God’s power to enable you to do what you feel you’re unable to do, so He gets the glory.

In Judges 6, the Israelites are in a bad spot. This is where we encounter a man named Gideon who had as many excuses as he had opportunities. Gideon is a prime example of God choosing the underdog, the unqualified, the inexperienced, to do the impossible.

We read in chapter 6 that Gideon’s dad, like many of his kinsmen, built an altar to and worshipped Baal. For an Israelite not to worship God and worship false gods was the greatest act of betrayal.

God made a covenant with Israel. He promised if they would obey His commandments and worship Him alone, He would set them high above the nations of the earth.

Instead, the Israelites abandoned God, resulting in Gideon and his people living in caves and hiding as the Midianites are slowly starving them to death.

Whenever the Israelites planted crops, Midian and others would raid the harvest leaving nothing for them to eat. So Gideon is risking his life to salvage what he can from the harvest and make food for his family.

Then suddenly, an angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said, “The LORD is with you, O mighty man of valor.” Gideon questions the statement that God is with him because if He were, why would all these bad things be happening? (Sound familiar?)

Gideon needs a new mindset. But, unfortunately, his doubt supersedes his faith as he questions where are all of God’s wonderful deeds that our fathers told us about?

Gideon is part of a generation that has not seen God’s power firsthand. The danger in not having a personal experience with God’s mighty power is that those may turn to outside sources to find joy, peace, purpose, love, deliverance, and hope outside of God.

Every generation needs its own experience with a mighty move of God. By not having a personal experience with the power of God has led Gideon to inaccurately hypothesize why their enemies have overpowered them.

“But the LORD has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

It’s not that God is unable to protect His people. It’s that they have turned away from Him and have forsaken His favor.

Still, Gideon continues to complain and make excuses instead of trusting the instructions from the angel of the LORD.

He lists reasons why he is unfit to lead the charge against the Midianites by saying, “my family is the weakest, and I am the least in my family.” Gideon believes that God needs strong people with a resume of great accomplishments to help God do great things.

God uses weak but willing people to accomplish great things! (See 1 Corinthians 1:26-29.) God is calling Gideon to fill in the gap.

No one in Israel is willing to stand against the oppression of the Midians because no one feels they have the skills, experience, or ability to do what needs to be done.

God isn’t looking for ability. He’s looking for availability.

Everything God does for our good is for His glory. God’s glory is the manifestation of His invisible attributes. His glory makes His presence and power visible to an unbelieving world.

This is why God selects the underdog, the inexperienced, and the unqualified because everyone around can see how they are ill-equipped to do it.

God makes two promises if Gideon will step out in faith. #1 “I will be with you.”

To an Israelite, God’s presence was synonymous with God’s power. When God was present, no enemy could stand against them.

• Do you covet God’s presence?
• Are you seeking God’s presence regularly?
• Are you creating space and an atmosphere for God’s presence in your life, home, or work?

#2 God told Gideon he would strike the Midianites as one person.

Gideon will defeat the nation as if fighting a single person. When God enlists you for service, to do what you feel incapable of doing, God will also enable you to do it successfully.

• What impossible opportunities are you avoiding that God is calling you to?
• Are there people God has put on your heart to share the gospel with or to pray with, but you have resisted?

Gideon, who felt weak and incompetent, is listed in Hebrews 11 with a very select group of people of great faith! If God calls you to it, He will bring you through it!