Believe God, in spite of the odds

Gideon’s army of 32,000 men was enormously outnumbered by the Midianites when God told him, “You have too many men.” He instructed Gideon to release anyone who was afraid, and Gideon lost two-thirds of his army. Now he had only 10,000 men. Again the Lord said, “There are still too many men,” and reduced Gideon’s army to 300 men. At that moment, the odds had to be a million to one. And it even got better! God directed Gideon to attack the Midianites with trumpets and pitchers. Now for the real kicker: Israel won! Why did God do it like that? Because if Gideon had attacked with 32,000 men and won, the Israelites would have thought that God didn’t provide much help and God would have received limited credit. But God is worthy of more. God desires and deserves complete credit. And when 300 men defeat a massive army with trumpets and pitchers, God receives all the glory (see Judges 7). Why? The reason is a victory like that overcomes all odds. Too frequently, our prayers revolve around requesting God to increase our odds of winning. We would like everything in our favour. But maybe God wants the odds to oppose us so we can encounter a miracle of divine proportions. Faith is trusting God no matter how hopeless the odds are. Our impossible circumstances are chances to experience a new height of God’s glory. Are you facing a situation that, humanly speaking, is beyond your ability to cope with it? Read this: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5 NKJV).