When You Can't Take the Credit
2007-11-09

Which is always, as far as I know...

Judges 7:1-7

Read

This is the passage where the Lord conquers a Midianite army using only 300 Israelites. The book asked me to underline words that stuck out or surprised me. Here are the words I underlined: too large, can't, twenty-two companies, leave, still, three hundred men who lapped.

Actually, this small passage from chapter 7 only details the selection of the 300 men. The reason I underlined "can't" is because that is an odd word for God to use. I think, in this case, "can't" needs to be interpreted as "don't want to." There are a few things that God "can't" do, contrary to popular opinion and song lyrics. He can't stop being God. He can't lie. Not much else. And no, he probably can't make a rock that is so big that he can't lift it. I always thought that was a dumb question anyway.

Nevertheless, when God says in Judges 7 that he "can't" turn over Midian to this huge Israelite army, it seems to mean that he doesn't want to because he knows that the human propensity to take credit for things. So he weeds the army down to a mere 300 soldiers (who lapped like a dog, mind you) and routs the Midianite army.

Think

I'm asked to remember when I might have accomplished things in my own strength and taken all the credit for them? Then I'm asked when I have accomplished something that seemed big and impossible, knowing that it only happened because of God's intervention.

At the moment, I'm at a loss. Well, I know that my wife and I have brought forth two wonderful daughters, and that miracle, even though it is a natural biological process, is still something that could only be accomplished in God's power. I know it's science. I know it's biology. I even pretty much understand how it all works. Cabbages, storks...just kidding. But it is biology that was put in place by God. All we did was, well...I'm not going into that! You know what we did.

I can't honestly remember when I have done something big and taken the credit for it. I've always tried to realize and be very honest about God's work in my life. And besides, I don't really remember ever doing anything big.

Pray

I'm asked to write a list of huge requests for God--things so large that only God's intervention could bring them to pass.

I'd like a new job...making as much as I'm making at the current one.

I'd like the opportunity to go back to school and get a Master's of Library Science.

I'd like to be more faithful to God.

I want my wife to have complete recovery of all sensations from her surgery this past Tuesday.

I'd like my daughter to be cured of her high functioning autism.

I'd like my other daughter's boyfriend to come to know Jesus.

Live

I'm to review this list on a regular basis, keep praying about it, and see how God has intervened.



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