Gideon was afraid. He was threshing wheat in a winepress in order to keep it from the marauding Midianites who had oppressed Israel for seven years. When the angel of the Lord told him to deliver Israel, Gideon balked, saying, “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about…? But now the Lord has abandoned us… (Judges 6:13).”


There is probably not one of us who has not found himself in a difficult situation wondering where God was in it all. Have you ever pouted like Gideon that surely God had abandoned you? Have the long years of your affliction gone on and on? That is how Gideon felt when he tested the angel of the Lord to prove that God would really be with him. He had doubted God and His faithfulness, but he was humbled when the Lord reminded him of His power.


God comforted Gideon. He knows our doubts and fears, too. He does not call us to follow Him because we are already brave and heroic. He calls us because He loves us and is at our side.