Fri.’s Devo - By My Spirit

Read: Judges 7:1-8:17; Luke 23:13-43; Psalms 97:1-98:9; Proverbs 14:7-8
The story of Gideon is a story of the underdog rising up and doing an impossible feat with a small amount of support. His encouragement came from the Lord. God wouldn’t let him take a large army and whittled it down to 300 just so they wouldn’t boast they had won by their own strength.
Every time Gideon got weak and afraid, God would send him another confirmation that He was with him and would give him the victory. God even used the dream of the enemy to encourage him but he ran upon most of his opposition from his own people. The leaders of Ephraim were upset that they weren’t included from the very beginning, and the town of Succoth and Peniel wouldn’t feed his troops because they didn’t believe he was credible. Gideon proved his credibility and came back and punished them for not helping him.
I can’t help but relate this to ministry today. We measure ministries by their numbers and their reputation in the world. If a new person with a calling rises up and he doesn’t have credentials yet, we tend to not listen to what he has to say. Gideon proved that it is not by power or might but by God’s spirit that anything worthwhile is done.
In Luke, Jesus has come back to Pilate and Pilate tries to have him released saying he has done nothing wrong. The lamb has been pronounced spotless.
The people won’t hear anything about releasing Jesus and trade him for Barabbas. Jesus becomes the scapegoat and Barabbas goes free. Jesus died sinless for our sins that we might be clean and forgiven.
Jesus forgave them for what they did because they didn’t have eyes to see who he was. He also forgave the thief on the cross because his eyes were opened.
Lord, may we have your heart of forgiveness and your eyes to see and understand. Remind us that what happens on this earth is not the real picture. The reality is in heaven.