Do you ever find yourself in a hole of your own making?

Perhaps you have a tendency to buy things on credit but can never quite get on top of the growing debt mountain. Perhaps you have a sharp tongue which lashes out in moments of anger and wounds a relationship. Maybe an addiction traps you and continually pulls you back down into a sin/guilt cycle. Or maybe it’s your pride to appear ‘all together’ that prevents you from welcoming people into your home and so you feel isolated and alone. We are all susceptible to creating holes for ourselves and then getting stuck in them.

The Israelites found themselves in literal holes – mountain clefts and caves – hiding from the Midianites because they did “evil in the eyes of Lord” (Judges 6:1). For seven years they couldn’t plant crops, their livestock was slaughtered, they were so overtaken by the Midianites that they were reduced to starvation. The Israelites were stuck in a hole big time and did the only thing left to do: “They cried out to the Lord for help.” (v6)

It is in this setting that the Angel of the Lord sits down next to Gideon. Gideon in the holes in the mountain, in a further hole of the winepress, hiding. It’s a pretty famous story in the Bible and we tend to focus on what God calls Gideon… but it’s verse 14 that jumped out to me recently. God says,

“Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

Go with the strength you have. With the strength you have. Not with perfection, not because you’ve got a masterplan for how you’re going to defeat the enemy. But with the strength you have. Because your little with God’s lot, is always more than enough. It reminds me of Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery (John 8). Jesus speaks to her and says, “Go and sin no more.”

He says the same to us. Go in the strength you have. Sin no more. Why? He’s sending you. He’s telling you to go. Start climbing out of that hole – not because you’ve solved the situation and you’re perfect, but because he tells you to go in the strength you have. His power is perfected in your weakness. He is the one who receives the glory when your hole is too deep and there’s no way you could get out of that thing on your own. If you’re stuck in a hole at the moment do the only thing left to do. Call out to the Lord because His grace is a graces that reaches down and lifts us out of the hole.

“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.” Psalm 40:1-3

Call out to the Lord and then go in the strength you have. Is he not sending you?