Late last year I was studying in the book of Judges to try to understand better the time in which the events of the book of Ruth occurred. These "judges" were the heroes God raised up to lead the Israelites to victory over their oppressors like the Canaanites or the Midianites.
In the sixth and seventh chapters, we see that Israel is crying out to the Lord for help because they were "reduced to starvation by the Midianites," and God's response was to send a prophet explaining what they had done to get them into the mess in which they found themselves. However, God also appeared as an angel of the Lord to a young man, the least of his family, and his family the least of all the tribes of Israel, and this young man's name was Gideon. And do you know what the angel of the Lord said to him? He said, "Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!" (Judges 6:12)
Okay, now this young man had been interrupted by the angel--he had been threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to keep any Midianites from seeing that he had food. He was sneaking around; not quite a mighty hero if you ask me. Gideon had not done anything heroic--not yet; in fact, it took him several tests to finally believe that it was actually God that appeared to him and that the Lord would do what He said He would do before he led any men into battle (you just have to go and read Judges 6 and 7 to get the rest of the story).
So we see God speaking to Gideon's potential (not what he had done but what he was going to do) by calling him a "mighty hero." Did you know that "the Lord is with you," too, if you have made Jesus the Lord of your life? That also means you have great potential in you as well to be a mighty heroine who is being raised up to help set the captives free and bring hope to the hopeless through the redeeming power of Jesus Christ who is in you.
You are a Mighty Woman of God! I encourage you to accept this truth as your own and walk confidently in the power of His Spirit today.
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