Where does my confidence come from? Insecurity Judges 21:25  //  In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. Judges 6:1  //  The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Judges 6:6, 11-17  //  Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” 15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” 16 The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” 17 Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” Judges 6:21-23  //  Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!” 23 But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” Judges 6:36-40  //  Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— 37 look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” 38 And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew. Judges 7:2-4, 7  //  The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ 3 Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained. 4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. 7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” 4:1 12:1 400:1 Judges 7:16  //  Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside.  Insecurity focuses on what I am not. Judges 6:12  //  When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” Security is an inheritance, not earned Confidence from anything temporary is temporary We look for confidence in SIGNS and in COMPARISON Moving Goalpost Syndrome It’s not about how much confidence you have, it’s about what you’re confident in. Insecurity wants proof, but God gives peace. My weakness is God’s opportunity. 2 Corinthians 12:10  //  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.