Who Am I?Sample

In Judges 6:12, the Angel of the Lord calls fearful Gideon a mighty man of valor based on who Gideon WILL be, not on who he is right now.

But then, in Judges 6:13, Gideon does something we all tend to do. He questions his identity because life has not gone the way he expected.

He says to God, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about...”

In other words, why is life this hard if God was really with me?

Don’t we all do that - question our walk, growth, everything - because life can be brutal?

And we don’t just question our identity. We question God. Look at Gideon’s words - “if the Lord is with us, why then…” In other words, “God, where were you?”

We might say, “God, where were you when I prayed for my loved one to be healed, and they died anyway?”

“God, where were you when I prayed to get that job, and it went to someone less qualified?”

What I love about God’s answer to Gideon is that God does not go on the defensive (He is God, after all). God does not explain why everything has happened in Gideon’s life.

God simply says to him, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?” (Judges 6:14b)

In answer to all of Gideon’s questions, God says this:

GO. Have I not sent you? GO.

Amid our insecurity about life and ourselves, God has called us to obey what He has told us in His Word and to trust Him with the little might we do have.

A key lesson here: God has not promised to answer the question “Who am I?” to make every one of our fears disappear. He essentially says, “Trust Me, obey Me, and walk in who you know you are in Me.”

And who is that? “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God has renewed you. Even if you are afraid, obey Him.

My hero, Elisabeth Elliot, says, “Sometimes when we are called to obey, the fear does not subside, and we are expected to move against the fear. One must choose to do it afraid.”