They were beaten and defeated. They lived afraid; always prepared for the worst. That has to be why Gideon was not threshing wheat in the open field where the wind could blow the chaff away. Instead, Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress. Wheat in the winepress? Oh yes, he hoped that the Midianites, who regularly visited and looted the land of Israel, would not catch him and steal his wheat. So tucked away and a little secure, he beats out his wheat in the winepress.
That is where God finds Gideon. And the angel of the Lord said "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior!" Hmmm. Mighty warrior? Hiding in the winepress, afraid of the enemy? Is God mocking? Or joking? Or does God know something that no one else could know? Only God Can.
God knows the strength Gideon has that no one else could see. And God knows what Gideon can do if God is with Him. Yes, Gideon can thresh wheat in a wine press. But only God can provide the strength and confidence Gideon needs to become the mighty warrior; the leader that Israel longs for and desperately needs.
Only God can see Gideon's potential, hidden even from Gideon himself. Only God can see in you what He can do through you, if you trust Him and live in his strength. How many of us are doing a little work in the winepress of our lives, when God has more - perhaps much more - for us to do? If for a moment we could see what Only God Can!
If He appeared to you today and called you a mighty warrior (spiritually speaking of course), would you react like Gideon with shock and a "how can I"? If He simply nudges you quietly, in your thoughts as you are praying or reading Scripture - and gives you an assignment that seems overwhelming - will you give God a chance? Would you give yourself a chance to do something more than threshing wheat in the winepress? God wants to do in each of our lives what only God can! (See Judges 6; Ephesians 3:20, 21)
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