February 11

Judges 6:15‑16
“He said unto Him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house...And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianite: as one man”— Judges 6:15, 1615And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. 16And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. (Judges 6:15‑16).
GIDEON’S words did not reveal what psychologists today call “an inferiority complex.” It was rather a true humility—a realization that in himself there was no power to deliver Israel. He came of a poor and insignificant family. He himself recognized his own helplessness. He did not feel there was anything of which he could boast. But he was to learn that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. Obedience was all that was needed. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:3131What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)) Gideon had the promise of the divine presence to rely upon. His future history tells us how remarkably God fulfilled His word in using this country lad to destroy the power of haughty Midian and to deliver and guide Israel.
“Blest are the humble souls that see
Their emptiness and poverty,
Treasures of grace to them are given,
And crowns of joy laid up in heaven.
Blest are the meek, who stand afar
From rage and passion, noise and war;
God will secure their happy state,
And plead their cause against the great.”
—I. Watts.