“Am I Not Sending You?” // Judges 6:12

Today’s verse is in the beginning of Gideon’s story out of the Book of Judges. The backstory is Israel turned away from God and calamity befell the people. The people from Midian came and utterly destroyed everything in Israel stealing, killing, and destroying everything in sight. The Israelites cried out to God, so God called Gideon to rise up and lead the people. Gideon’s response echoes throughout history and becomes relevant today: “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian” (Judges 6:13, NIV). God told Gideon to go in strength before asking rhetorically, “Am I not sending you?”

God wanted Gideon to be available to lead and be a vessel by which He would deliver Israel. We can easily get wrapped up in all the evil we see around us in the world and wonder if God is real or if God cares. We must realize that a lot of the struggle we experience is due to our turning away from God, but if we acknowledge that, we can stand strong and be a vessel by which God brings deliverance. We might be like Gideon and wonder how things got so bad, but God wants to surge His good through you. Will you be available? After all, God might be answering someone else’s prayer through you when you hear Him ask, “Am I not sending you?”