God doesn’t want us to be trying to do everything by ourselves. He wants us to trust Him and depend on Him for everything we need. We can easily fall into the trap of feeling like we don’t need God, that we can handle everything ourselves. But the truth is that ‘it is God who makes us able to do all that we do.’ God showed this to Gideon when the Israelites were facing a battle with the Midianites. God had called Gideon to lead the army and save Israel. He gathered together all the men who would fight with him and it came to 32,000 men. But God wanted to show that they would win through Him, not manpower. ‘The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men to defeat the Midianites. I don’t want the Israelites to brag that they saved themselves”’ (Judges 7:2 NCV). So God reduced the number of men down to just 300 (you can read about this in Judges 7). Imagine how Gideon must have felt. In Judges 6 we already see that Gideon felt inadequate (take a look at verse 15). Now he probably felt unprepared too. But God said: ‘Using the three hundred men who lapped the water, I will save you and hand Midian over to you’ (Judges 7:7 NCV). And He did. God wants us to depend on Him for what we need. He provides for all He has made. The Bible says: ‘All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time’ (Psalm 104:27 NIV). He doesn’t want us to be worrying about our situations or becoming prideful about our own abilities. We should stop leaning on our own strength and resources, and instead depend wholly and solely on God. 

What Now?

Tell God about any situations you’re facing which scare you. Then every time you feel afraid about it, remind yourself that you can depend on God to help you through.