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The Lord will intentionally place you in hopeless situations and separate you from those who might have helped you in order to teach you to trust in Him. He has done this throughout scripture, just as He instructed Abraham to leave his father's house and homeland to travel to a place He would reveal later. Abraham had to trust and go without knowing his destination. I have witnessed similar occurrences in our lives, time and again.

We will begin in the book of Judges with Gideon. Israel "did evil" in the sight of the Lord, and soon they were overrun by the Midianites. For seven years, whenever the harvest in Israel was ready, raiders from Midian would swoop down and take it away. We pick up in (Judges 6:12), where we find Gideon threshing wheat inside a winepress to hide it from the Midianite raiders when an Angel of the Lord appeared to him:

(Judges 6:12–13 NASB) The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior." Then Gideon said to him, "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, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian."

Gideon asked, "Why has all of this happened to us?" Then he said, "The Lord has abandoned us…" I can't tell you how many times I've thought and spoken those exact words. Feelings of fear, anxiety, hopelessness, and helplessness would flood in. It felt as if God had abandoned us, with constant whispers telling me I was alone and that He didn't care. Gideon was just trying to survive, holding no hope for change.

(Judges 6:14–16 NASB) The LORD looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?" He said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house." But the LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."

Here, we learn that the "angel of the Lord" is actually the Lord Jesus Christ, making a rare appearance in the Old Testament as "The Lord" spoke to him. Jesus seemingly took the form of a common man, as Gideon did not recognize who He was and was unafraid to argue with Him. When Jesus said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior," He was indeed, for the "Lord" was standing right there in front of him, speaking.

Jesus told Gideon to "Go in the strength you have" and save Israel, and then Gideon began to make excuses: "How can I save Israel? My family is the weakest in our tribe, and I am the weakest in my family!" Jesus said, "I will be with you." The answer to "How can I?" is "I will be with you." Moses had similar questions and received the same answer:

(Exodus 3:10–12 NKJV) Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?" So He said, "I will certainly be with you..."

So Gideon gathered an army of 32,000 men to fight with Midian, but God separated him from most of them. First, 22,000 turned back, then 9,700, and finally, Gideon was left with only 300 men. That was plenty, for when the battle began, the Midianites turned on each other and began fighting among themselves. The strength that Gideon had was more than enough to accomplish the task given to him.

Zechariah wrote: "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit" (Zechariah 4:6). Paul wrote this to the Corinthians:

"For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again." (2 Corinthians 1:8 ESV).

Paul wrote that the afflictions were permitted so that they would learn to depend on God and not on themselves. It is astonishing the lengths to which God will go to inspire you to trust in Him. He will shake up your world, and everything you place your trust in, except Him, will ultimately let you down.

The Lord is not completely ruthless, but make no mistake - He is a gardener who is not afraid to prune you back and remove the things you no longer need. He will take away your training wheels, even when you want to keep them. I cannot count the times He placed someone in my life to teach me the basics of something, only to suddenly remove them so that I could grow on my own.

When He started pushing me into my own computer business, He removed everyone I could turn to for answers, so I would only look to Him. When I prayed about a service call I was nervous about, I would hear, "Go, and I will go with you." Day after day, His help, wisdom, and grace were more than enough to face anything that came my way.

When David stepped out to face Goliath, they tried to give him armor, but he would not wear it. He was more comfortable with what he already had on. The strength that he had was more than enough because God's strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). In Gideon, Got intentionally chose the weakest in the family, who was the weakest clan in his tribe.

If you learn to trust the Lord, He will transform your weaknesses into incredible success. It does not matter what you face. When the time arrives, His Spirit will come upon you, just as it did with Samson. Jesus said, "The Helper, the Holy Spirit, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:26). He will teach us "all" things.

James wrote that if any of us lack wisdom, we should ask God, who gives generously, and it will be given to us (James 1:5). That's how Solomon gained his wisdom. He wasn't born the wisest man on earth; he asked God for it, and it was given to him as a gift.

Whatever the Lord calls you to do, just begin with the strength you already have, and it will be enough. Anything else you need will be provided along the journey.

You can pray this with me if you like:

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please guide me today and speak to me in a way that I can understand. I want Your perfect will to be done in my life. Help me focus on the right things and provide me with a clear vision. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.