An angel came to Gideon and told him a pretty typical message:
“The Lord is with thee”. (Judges 6:12)
Aren’t we told this a lot too?
God is aware of us.
His Spirit is with us.
The Savior walks with us.
But Gideon pushes back on this idea:
“Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?
“and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of…?” (Judges 6:13)
Doesn’t Gideon’s logic sound familiar, too??
If the Lord is really with me, then why are all of these terrible things happening?
Where are the miracles you promised?
The angel doesn’t completely answer Gideon’s question in the moment, other than pointing him toward future blessings.
But how would you respond to Gideon’s question?
I usually try to focus on one point in each post that I write, but I’ve had a lot of thoughts swirling around on this topic lately, so I’m going to share a few ideas and you can take the idea that resonates the most right now.
- The reward for being righteous always comes. Always. Usually not when we want it, and sometimes not even in this life. But we have to trust in God’s promise that it will come.
- The real blessing in the moment is peace and joy on the inside, despite turbulent circumstances.
- Life can’t just be perfect for those who believe in God and miserable for those who don’t. That would take away the element of faith, and would hinder agency.
- Although I 100000% relate to this feeling, I can also see how spiritually immature it is to just want blessings all the time. A spiritually mature individual loves God and Jesus with their whole heart, mind, and soul, and the circumstances literally don’t matter at all.
What do you think? How would you respond to Gideon?
Because Gideon isn’t the only one asking this question.
It’s everywhere. It’s on social media. It’s in our church classes. It’s being asked over and over in our minds.
And I think there is a whole new level of spiritual understanding available when we start to realize that the angel’s declaration of the Lord being with us IS the miracle we’ve been looking for all along.
Happy Studying!
-Cali Black
8 Responses
My prayers are answered…. sometimes I am surprised at how the answer is the not what I expected….. Rather what I needed… I just have to recognize it as the answer.
Heavenly Father always knows what we need. <3 Thanks for sharing!
I believe God always gives us blessings for the trials that we go through. I have so many personal experiences of this principle. The hard times in our lives are just, well, hard!
The problem isn’t that the blessings don’t come, it is often that we don’t see them or recognize them. I pray often to see the miracles in my life. To acknowledge them and to be thankful for them. If I had the choice of living my life without the trials, I would not do that. The trials are what make me who I am!
I agree, trials help to shape us into who we are. I also love that you pray to recognize the miracles in your life! Thank you for sharing!
I sure appreciate your insight
Thank you!
I love this. I love your insights. I always think of a dear friend of mine who was having a hard time. She had a son on a mission, and I asked her if she felt she was receiving blessings while he was serving. She said, “Oh yes! I know I’m getting missionary blessings, they’re just not the blessings I want!” I thought that was well put. We receive blessings, but maybe not the ones she felt were what she needed. While her son was serving, they had major appliances that went out and had to be replaced, major health problems with another child, a death in the family, and on and on. Those were the things she wanted solved, but she was receiving blessings like a closer family, more spirituality in the home, more love of the Savior and towards God, a better relationship with her husband, etc. Like you said, the blessings are always there. Always!
Thank you so much for sharing! I’m happy your friend was still able to see and recognize her blessings through her trials. <3