Are you a scooper?

There is a really powerful story in Judges 7 about fear. Gideon was going into battle. He had an army of men ready for battle. Or at least they thought they were ready for battle. God told Gideon that his army was too big. If he defeated his enemy with that number of soldiers, God wouldn't get the glory. Now the enemy they were facing was huge. The Bible says the camels the enemy had with them were without number. That's a huge army!

Well God doesn't work like we do. He didn't look at the size of the army. God told Gideon to tell everyone that had fear to just go home. Well a huge chunk of them left.

Then God told Gideon to take everyone to the water to drink. He told Gideon to observe how they drank. Those that got on their knees and put their face in the water to drink should go home. Those that used their hand to scoop water and drink could stay. The "scoopers" were vigilant. They could see the enemy sneaking up. The ones that put their face into the water were vulnerable because the enemy could sneak up on them. There were 300 scoopers who got to stay.

Well, God knew that there was fear in Gideon's heart. He told him to sneak down to the enemy's camp and spy. He told Gideon that he would be encouraged by what he heard. Gideon overheard while spying that there was fear in the enemy camp because of a dream someone had that God had delivered the Midianites into Gideon's hand. The enemy ended up killing themselves. God got the glory.

We all have battles we are fighting. Sometimes we don't feel up to the task. That is exactly where we need to be. Banish fear. Know what the Bible says about the promises God gave you. Let it encourage your heart. Be as prepared as you can for battle. Know that the enemy (Satan) is running scared. Be vigilant and then be prepared to give God the glory for your success.

God has put this story on my heart for the past few weeks. I thought I would share what he revealed to me about this story on my blog. I hope it encourages your heart.