When You’re Tired of Being Strong: Faith in Difficult Times
There’s this running joke on the internet that so many people across generations have related to about being on “God’s strongest soldier list.”
It’s meant to be a funny way to make light of going through hard and challenging seasons, but one thing I learned growing up is that there’s always a little truth behind every joke.
And the truth of the matter is, a lot of people are weary. They feel beaten down by what they’re going through, and they’re exhausted. Wondering why life feels like one battle after another.
In Judges 6, we meet a young man named Gideon who was chosen by God to deliver the Israelites from a group of people called the Midianites, who made life absolutely miserable for them for seven years.
Their land was destroyed.
Their crops were ruined.
Their livestock was taken.
And they feared for their lives.
So, in their despair, the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.
He heard their cry and answered.
In verse 12, the angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and says, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”
Immediately, Gideon is like, “No disrespect, but if the Lord is with us, then why has all this happened to us? Clearly He has given us over to the Midianites. Why has He abandoned us?” (Judges 6:13 paraphrased)
Now, in context, it’s important to understand that the Israelites found themselves in this situation as a result of their continued disobedience to God. Gideon’s response, however, is still one I think many of us can relate to.
Questions begin to arise while our thoughts try to make sense of all that is transpiring around us. Fear and a lack of understanding demanding to know why.
And if we aren’t careful, this is where resentment can subtly take root.
The mind becomes a battlefield that quickly targets God and His character as the obvious enemy.
“Because surely He isn’t with me if I’m going through this.”
“Surely, He has abandoned me.”
“Surely, He’s good to everyone else but me.”
“Surely, if He is who He says He is, when is He going to come through for me?”
But a mind renewed by the Word of God knows to take captive every thought that comes against the truth of God instead of allowing those thoughts to make conclusions for us.
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”—2 Corinthians 10:5
The angel of the Lord then tells Gideon to go forth because He was sending him.
Again, Gideon is immediately like, “Wait a second. Not only is my family the weakest link in our tribe, but I’m the very least in my family. How can I rescue Israel?” (Judges 6:15 paraphrased)
In this moment, Gideon couldn’t fathom being able to win the battle the Lord was sending him into.
He begins to tell God who he and his family are, as if God wasn’t already aware.
I can imagine Gideon felt as if he was being thrust to the top of God’s strongest soldier list. Wondering why he was chosen for this and how he would see it through.
And yet, that’s the thing: it was never meant for Gideon to go about this in his own strength.
This was an opportunity for Gideon’s faith to mature.
Would he choose to take God at His word, and believe that He was with him.
Because when we allow our limitations and weaknesses to consume our point of view, we lose sight of God and who He is.
We immediately magnify our problems, our exhaustion and weariness, and before we know it we're weighed down.
Carrying a burden that was meant to be laid at the feet of Jesus.
His grace is sufficient for us in every circumstance, for His power is made perfect in weakness. Yet in order for His power to be demonstrated through us, we first have to be willing to come to Him as we are.
God didn’t need Gideon to have it all figured out.
The key to his victory would ultimately be found in his faith: his confident assurance in the one whom he was to rely on.
And to be honest with you, there are some depths of faith that can only be developed when we actually walk through the hard thing instead of wanting it removed for the sake of comfort and ease.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”—Hebrews 11:6
Once Gideon got himself together, he prepared for battle in chapter 7.
He starts off with 32,000 men.
And honestly, this seemed reasonable. If you’re going into battle, one would logically think you’d want enough backup to support the fight.
If anything, compared to the Midianites, this amount of men might’ve been too small.
Yet the Lord tells Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’"–– Judges 7:2
Because here’s the thing: if we can do it in our own strength, then why would we need God?
If we are ever able to boast about accomplishing something solely through our own effort, we are not only robbing God of His glory, but establishing a false sense of security rooted in pride.
And pride has a not-so-fun way of setting us up for failure in the long run.
So, as the Lord begins to thin out Gideon’s army, the number is reduced to just 300 men.
Gideon's circumstances were intentionally arranged so that when the victory came, there could be no reasonable explanation for it apart from God.
All that was required of Gideon was to have faith in the One who was sending him.
Because the outcome belonged to God.
And the part that I love most about Gideon’s story is that he started off questioning God and His involvement in their suffering.
Yet as Gideon continued to move forward with the faith he had, he saw just how much God actually was with them.
It would’ve been easy to remain at the conclusion that God wasn’t present. And honestly speaking, a lot of people feel justified in their anger against God and just end there.
But it’s in these moments where we find out what our faith is really made of.
Because a faith that isn’t rooted in truth won’t last. And God wants us to have the kind of faith that is able to not just endure, but endure well without falling away.
'So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ' Colossians 2:6-7
So maybe you’ve been feeling like you’ve earned a permanent position on “God’s strongest soldier list,” and you’re exhausted, wondering how you can unsubscribe.
My takeaway for you today is not that if you just have more faith, your circumstances will turn out well.
Gideon’s circumstantial victory was specific to what God promised him and cannot be taken as a blanket promise that God will always give believers the outcome we desire.
But the principle we can take from Gideon’s story, and my heart behind today’s encouragement, is that the key to our victory is our faith in difficult times: who we choose to rely on and trust beyond what we can see.
It’s bigger than our circumstances going in our favor or a life of ease.
It’s about where our hope lies and what we bring ourselves back to at the end of it all.
Knowing that in this world we’re going to have tribulation, but taking heart because of the promise of peace that is ours in Christ Jesus.
And my prayer for the weary-hearted today, for those who genuinely feel as if they don’t know how much more they can take, is that your faith will rest confidently in the God who is with you.
And as your faith rests in Him, I pray that you will also experience the rest that comes from trusting Him to see you through every challenge and obstacle, regardless of the outcome, because He has already overcome the world.
His invitation to you is this, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
Comments