“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Pro 23:7a (Amplified)
David Schwartz said “Where success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, or pounds, or college degrees, or family background; they are measured by the size of their thinking. How big we think determines the size of our accomplishments.” The person that best exemplify this truth is none other than Gideon. After the horde of human locusts, the Midianites and Amalekites, had invaded and ravaged their land, the Israelites were left with little to eat. However, when this scourge became an annual event, things quickly became desperate for the beleaguered Israelites and they had no choice but to resort to stealing their own crops in order to evade the attention of their increasingly confident oppressors. As was usual in such tough times, the Israelites turned to and began crying out to God for His deliverance and God finally acceded to their request by giving them a leader in the person of the man Gideon.
However, there was a slight problem. The man God had tapped up to lead His people was a very busy man; He too was busy hiding from the invaders and was eking out a meagre and mediocre living by threshing grain in a wine pit. For a saviour, this was not a promising start and God was not blind to this gaping chink in Gideon’s armour, which He addressed in His first address to this beleaguered man. God duly addressed Gideon as a mighty man of valour and in the next breath ordered him to “Go in this your might and deliver Israel from the Midianites and Amalekites”. Despite Gideon’s vociferous protest and powerful arguments detailing the reason why this end was just not possible in the prevailing circumstance, God prevailed by slowly building up Gideon’s confidence in His ability to supernaturally transform difficult situations and before long he became a firm believer first in God, then in himself and finally in his God-given dream. The man who initially saw himself as an insignificant nobody soon gained a healthy picture of himself as he belatedly latched onto God’s view of himself and he became a transformed, visionary and highly charged man who feared no one and would stop at nothing to fulfil God’s purpose for his life.
So, what changed in Gideon to bring about this destiny-altering transformation in his life? What happened within Gideon that transformed him from a cowering nobody into God’s raging bull in the Midianites and Amalekites’ joint China shop? The key was the change in Gideon’s thinking. The simple truth is that you cannot ascend in life higher than your thoughts. So, if you are in the doldrums today, it could well be that your thinking is still mired in the doldrums. When God pronounced him a mighty man when he showed no sign or quality of valour, it was God’s way of challenging Gideon to raise his game and rise up to his destiny. Gideon ultimately took up God’s gauntlet and the rest as they say is history. So what is your measure? How high is your thinking in the light of the present troubles? Are you still engaged in defeatist thinking of threshing grains in the wine pit? You need to rise up, look your problem square in the face, and start seeing yourself the way God already sees you. You need to change your thinking and develop the attitude of a winner. Then like Gideon you will be ready to fulfil your destiny. So, rise up mighty man or woman of God, because you were made to triumph over adversity. You were born for times such as these.
Prayer:
Father, in your name I declare that I shall arise and go forth. I shall not die but live to declare your glory to the world. I shall do valiantly in your might name. Amen