MONDAY, MARCH 24
Scripture: Judges 6:11-13, 28

Judges 6:11-13 says, “Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!’ Gideon said to Him, ‘O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, “Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?” But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.’” Here we find Gideon threshing wheat and hiding it from the Midianites. And God is calling Gideon to a whole new realm of authority. But Gideon does not see how he can do it because of his position. All Gideon knows is that he is the least in his family, his family is the least in his tribe, and his tribe is the least in Israel. So Gideon has three strikes against him. Gideon’s problem is how he sees himself. God came to Gideon in order to deliver him of how he saw himself so that he could trust God for the power to finish the race. Can we begin to see who we are? Can we trust God for the power to finish our race? We better! It is time. We need to. The first thing Gideon had to do was cut down the altar of Baal destroying the wooden image. It is interesting the phraseology that is used in verse 28. Verse 28 says, “And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built.” “….Cut down…” means it was reduced to zero or deprived of all authority. ‘Cut down’ equals ‘cut off.’ Gideon’s training began with the fact that he had the authority to cut down or cut off the enemy. Shouldn’t our training begin there? Shouldn’t we start at the same place – know that our whole tenure as a King is to confront and cut off the enemy? Once Gideon got that he was ready to finish the race. And once we get it we will be ready to finish the race.