God Wants ALL The Glory

Do you remember the story of Gideon and his army? I loved that story as a child. We read that story with a hindsight perspective, but imagine being Gideon and God tells you to cut your army twice, and not by just a few, but significantly! Gideon went from 30,000 men to 300 men. We see that he obeyed, but imagine what he was feeling! (You can read the story in Judges 6 and 7.)

You see God didn’t intend for Gideon’s army to fight hand-to-hand with the Midianites. God wanted all the glory. He caused confusion to come over the enemy and they fought themselves.

Has there ever been a time where you knew you were obeying the voice of the Lord, yet not seeing breakthrough? Perhaps He is leading you down a path where you can’t possibly take any of the glory for yourself, it will be clear to all that the victory was the Lord’s.

If Gideon had gone into battle with his 30,000 men, he could have claimed victory for himself. He could have forgotten that God chose him, called him, instructed him. But with an army of only 300, there was no possible way he could claim any glory for the victory.

I have detailed how my first thought was to solve my health issues myself. After I gave up on that and started following God’s leading, I saw minor improvements, but not full victory. It was frustrating. There were times I knew that I heard from God, but was frustrated that I wasn’t seeing immediate results. Just like Gideon, God led me through steps; it didn’t come all at once. And now looking in hindsight I can see that His purpose was to get all the glory. I changed my diet, I took supplements, I cut back on things that were stressing me out, but those things were only steps. I cannot look at any one single thing that I did and say that was the key. It was only until I received a full (and I say full, because I have had a partial knowledge of this my whole life) revelation of the authority that is mine as a child of God. Only after exercising that authority, did breakthrough and healing come. And that is the beauty, when I exercised my authority, God did the work, He fought the battle, He got the victory, it was so very clear that my part was miniscule in comparison, He gets all the glory! Just as Moses lifted his rod over the Red Sea, I had to do my part, but there is no way I can take any credit. God parted the Red Sea and God healed me.

So, if you are feeling discouragement right now, know that God isn’t done. Keep on trusting, keep on obeying, the breakthrough will come. God knows you better than you know yourself. He wants all the glory and He will lead you down the path that will bring glory to Himself.

Character

I'm going to reach back a bit and fill in some gaps.  With my 3rd grade son this year I decided to study various character aspects of God.

What you think of God will have a big impact upon your life.  What does God's Word have to say about His character?

I sat down and listed all the character qualities I could think of and then researched each one.  We spent a few weeks on each one.

I had my son take certain notes so that it would help the information stick in his mind.  If kids are doing something with the information they are learning it will help them retain it better.  Now he has that notebook to refer back to, also, and refresh his memory.

For each character quality I had him copy the definition out of the dictionary (one day) and then copy down a theme verse (separate day).  Then each day I would read him a Bible story that illustrated that quality, he then kept a list of the stories on his notebook page.

Our first character aspect was faithful.  The theme verse was Hebrews 10:23 "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful."  I found various stories of God making a promise to someone and keeping that promise.  The ones we read were -  Noah (promised to preserve from the flood), Abraham (promised a son), Peter & John, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego; Paul (God promised him he would go to Rome, we read all the stories of how God kept him from harm so he could get to Rome, including a shipwreck).

Then I thought we would cover some of the promises in God's Word that He is faithful to perform (Jer. 1:12 & Is. 55:11).  I looked up various verses about - protection, provision, strength, healing, joy, wisdom, and peace.

I know there are many more that I didn't find.  Each day we covered a separate promise and I had my son list all the scripture references in his notebook so that he could use it as a reference whenever he needed.

Next we learned that God is our Healer.  Our theme verse was Ex. 15:26 "I am the Lord who heals you."  We went through all four gospels (and the beginning of Acts) and picked out every single story on healing that we found.  I had my son write down each reference each day so that he could have it as a reference.

Next was God our Deliverer.  Theme verses were Psalm 91:14-15 "Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.  He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him."  We read stories of deliverance - Gideon, Jacob & Esau, Moses in the basket, the Israelites from Egypt, Deborah the Judge, Rahab in Jericho, Israel from Balaam's curse, Samson, David from Goliath, David from Saul, Shadrach, Meshach & Abed-Nego, and Daniel in the lion's den.

Next was God our Provider.  Theme verse Philippians 4:19 "And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."  Story of creation (order of importance, man was created last so that everything he needed was already here), Elijah and the ravens, Elijah and the widow, manna, water from the rock, Book of Ruth, feeding the thousands (loaves and fishes), consider the sparrows and the lillies/do not worry passage, tax money from a fish, David provided with the showbread to eat, Goliath's sword for a weapon, and a hiding place for his family, when on the run from Saul; and Joseph and his family during famine.

This brings us up to date (we did character qualities from July through October).  We have taken a bit of a detour (because I was lazy and didn't research a new character quality) and read through some Psalms and Proverbs (month of November) and are now on a prophecy kick.  See later posts for details.