What do you see? It's most likely not the same....

"I am fat, I need to lose weight." "I am not good enough, I'm not like ...." "I am used up and poured out and have nothing to show for it." "I missed my opportunity. I am a failure." "I am too old." "I am too young." "I could never do that!" "I have sin that no one knows about. I am weak." In Judges 6, the Israelites were living in great oppression. The Midians who once sheltered a fleeing Moses, who then attempted to seduce the Israelites to worship false gods, were now the ones oppressing the mess out of the Israelites. Their oppression was so great that in chapter 6 it tells that the Israelites were making all kinds of hiding places for themselves. Anything the Israelites did, the Midianites loved to destroy. In verse 11, the youngest boy of the weakest family in his city was trying to secretly thresh wheat in a wine vat. This is a silly as trying to make banana nut bread in a Kool Aid jar. The Bible said that the Angle of the Lord appeared to this boy and said "The Lord is with you mighty warrior." God saw and referred to this boy the way HE saw him and not the way he saw himself. God spoke to this boy by referencing the potential "mighty warrior" God saw in him, not the potential he saw within himself. This boy was confused as to why God referred to him as a mighty warrior and after hearing what God wanted him to do he tried to remind God what he thought of himself and said "How can I do what you want me to do? Look at my family. It's the weakest in this country and I am the youngest member of my family." Then God said to him "But I will be with you" Do we understand that when God looks at us, He sees us with the potential that He created us for? Can we let go of what we see and say "BUT with YOU God I can do and be what you see me as and what you created me to do!" John 15:8 says: "It is to my Father's glory to bear MUCH fruit and prove to be my disciples." We're not called to hide in our homes from the enemy who wants to oppress us. We are not called to hide and try to make productivity from our home and create banana bread from kool aid jars. We have the tools and we have God, GO OUT! Tell the world about His love for them. And by God's grace try to see yourself as He sees you! This boy that I'm talking about is Gideon! He was very afraid. The first thing God told him to do, he did it at nighttime because he was too afraid to do it in daylight and have others see. He needed tangible evidence from God that God was talking to him and set out a fleece to make sure he wasn't imagining God's commands. Gideon's self image didn't happen overnight and God stood beside him as he learned who God had created him to be. Gideon ends up fighting the oppressors and reestablished a 40 year time of peace for the Israelites. Gideon could not have accomplished what he did if he had not let go of his self image and traded it in for how God saw him. What image of yourself do you need to trade in so that you can accept how God sees you? "God stands to get much glory from making mighty warriors out of the least likely people." -Beth Moore