Monday was all about realizing who we’re not. When we stop focusing on ourselves and our own strength, that is when the strength of God comes in and accomplishes the big things. I’ve found in my reading this week a very good example of that weakness.

Judges 6:14-16 shows us a picture of Gideon, a man who (spoiler alert) would save the children of Israel from the oppressive Midianites. Here, the Bible says,

Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” So he said to Him, “O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” And the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”

Notice that this very useful and effective worker of the Lord was not very confident in his abilities, and to that, I think the Lord would say, “Exactly!”

It wasn’t about who Gideon thought he was. It wasn’t about a powerful man or an impressive pedigree. It was about someone weak. Someone hiding in a winepress threshing wheat. It was about a man who was very small in his own eyes, because that left room for a very big God to come in and save the day. If Gideon’s ego had been inflated, there would have been no room for God to come in.

All of us have weaknesses. We have insecurities. We have those things about us that we really feel disqualify us from being workers for the Lord. But it is those things that the Lord has and will always use. He used fishermen, not eloquent poets, to tell the greatest story ever told. He used a shepherd, not a trained military warrior, to rule over a troubled nation. He used a runaway murderer to boldly face the Pharaoh, and He will absolutely, most definitely, use you and your weaknesses, too.

I never thought that I would go from broken home to preacher’s wife, but God knew the plans He had for me (Jer. 29:11). And because I have already seen some of His plans in action (in my life and through those in the Bible), I trust that whatever other insecurities I have, He will magnify Himself through those as well.

God loves to use the weak to show His strength. Don’t shy away from being a worker because you feel insecure. Find your weaknesses and watch God use them to exalt His kingdom! Better yet, pray that God will magnify Himself through the insecurities you have. May we all boldly exclaim “I want to be a worker for the Lord!” and then humbly accept whatever means He chooses to accomplish His work by. Remember the words of the apostle Paul, and may this be our mindset as well:

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)