JU8-8: Read This If You Ever Start Feeling Sorry For Yourself

Let’s get our bearings here for a sec.

So Gideon has successfully executed the first stage of his campaign to rid the Promised Land of the Midianites and Amalekites who came during the harvest season to steal Israel’s food supplies.

Understand these invaders didn’t necessarily come because they had some kind of irrational hatred for Israel.

They came simply because they wanted Israel’s resources.

This has been the way of nomadic locusts since time immemorial.

They always prefer preying (on others) to praying…because they have no idea how to create anything on their own.

You know, this is really a personal pet peeve of mine but I think there’s a HUGE lesson here.

It is the ungodly who will always operate from a scarcity mentality thinking that the only way they can get ahead is to pillage and plunder.

On the other hand, the Godly realize the Lord has gifted them with certain talents, skills and imagination they can utilize to create wealth seemingly outta nowhere.

I’ll never forget something I heard from a Jewish gentlemen when I was dining at a Kosher deli in San Francisco (the joint was on Geary Street in the downtown area) so many, many years ago.

Of course I can’t remember his exact words but what he basically told me was…

“You know, Israel is a small country but it doesn’t matter because the Lord gifted us with brains…while He gave our enemies who want to destroy us natural resources”.

The enemy he was referring to were the Arab countries surrounding Israel and the natural resources he was referring to were of course the huge oil deposits buried underneath the ground in their countries.

Looking back and reminiscing on what that gentleman told me, I really think that IS the one key difference between the Godly and those who are not.

And it really is a mindset difference.

The ungodly compare themselves to others and look at the resources everyone else possesses turning green with envy because they don’t have what they have.

So then what do they do?

In their jealousy and because they lack confidence in their own ability to produce, they plunder and pillage what others have.

That’s how the criminal mind works.

“I’m not happy with what God has given me, so I’m gonna steal from others” is their pattern of thought.

While the Godly on the other hand understand they are created in the Lord’s image and that they have been given a brain, imagination and other intrinsic gifts that will enable them to produce wealth from outta nothing. 

It’s the difference between creating Harry Potter and pirating Harry Potter.

Again, just look at Israel and what they’ve achieved with that little piece of desert real estate they possess in the Middle East.

I believe they produce a good portion of the food supply in the region and have I think more hi-tech startups than anywhere in the world.

And to think they did this in a couple of short generations after rising up from the ashes of the Holocaust is just AMAZING!

A true testament to the power of both the human and Holy Spirit I would say.