The God Of All Comfort

I just love how the Lord decides to use people to speak to us at the most unexpected moments!

One time this happened started as just a normal Sunday, except for the fact that I was attending church on my own that morning as my husband was out of town.

I decided that day I was going to sit smack-dab in the middle row of the sanctuary.  I plopped myself down in an empty seat, and shortly after came a couple to sit by me that I adored.  This couple always seemed to radiate the light of Jesus.

Worship started, and after the first song we had a short greeting time and I went over to give the lady a hug.  But she suddenly stopped me, looked me in the eyes, and said she really felt the Lord wanted her to remind me that He’s the “God of the Impossible.”

I broke down in tears – unexpected tears!

And as I contemplated on that moment the next few days, I was reminded of so many times that God did do such impossible things in our family’s lives; one of the biggest being when our son Jeffrey with cerebral palsy wanted to move out of state to college.  Wow, how the Lord opened door-after-door to make all that happen – in spite of our moments of hesitation, fear and doubt.

There’s a man named Gideon in the Bible who experienced the God of the Impossible also.

In Judges 6 the story begins by an angel appearing before Gideon who is busy threshing wheat.  The angel tells Gideon he is a mighty warrior, and has been chosen to save his country from the Midianites, who had invaded Israel and had been keeping the Israelites in bondage.

Gideon has a hard time believing all this is happening to him – has he heard correctly?  After all, who is he to be chosen for such a mighty task?

The angel tells him not to worry, because God Himself will be fighting with him.

Because Gideon wants to make sure this is from God, he asks for a sign; and God performs a miracle right in front of him.  Gideon then takes his first step of obedience by destroying all the idolatrous altars that had been built.  But he does it at night, because he’s still kind of scared.

Didn’t matter – they found out that it had been Gideon who had taken the bold step.

But something started happening to Gideon through his act of obedience.  Gideon is turning into the mighty warrior that God has called him to be.

He gathers up an army in preparation for war, but before attacking goes before God to ask for one more miracle to confirm he’s heard correctly; and then after receiving that miracle, asks for another one!

God gives it to him, so the army gets ready to advance.

However there’s still more of the impossible that God wants to teach Gideon.

Because as we get into Judges 7, we see that Gideon has about 32,000 men, but God tells him that’s too many.  So 22,000 of those soldiers are let go.

But God says he still has too many, so the army is whittled down until only 300 are left!

Although we don’t know exactly how many enemies Gideon’s small 300-man army defeated as they followed through with God’s precise plans, it appears that it was at least 120,000 (Judges 8:10) that got trampled!  God, indeed, is showing that nothing is impossible for Him.

Gideon learned amazing new things about his God through that chain of events, and if we are honest with ourselves we can look back and see how we have learned many new things through the impossible things that God has brought us through, as well.

But why did God make Gideon get rid of the majority of his army and only attack with 300 men?  Because God wanted to show His glory.  Sometimes He intentionally allows us to feel out-manned so that we can realize it is God Himself who has won the battle, and not because of our brilliance.

I love how the sweet sister I sat next to in church that day shared that reminder with me.  Because we often forget just who God is, don’t we?  He truly is the God of the Impossible, and He wants us to remember the victories of our past, and be ready and waiting for the victories to come in our future.