“The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.”

It is annual budgeting planning season, in fact, many companies have probably already finalized their 2020 budgets and are now just working hard to finish out this year with strong results. Invariably, in our future budgets, there is less money to be invested or spent than what we requested.  I have worked through many a budget and the best budgets are those where through questioning, analysis, rationalizing, and being conservative, the fat has been cut so that the muscle can shine through. It’s in our human nature to pad a budget a bit, keep a rainy day reserve, etc.  Those are fine, but not if they cause us to not be our best at being disciplined, efficient and yes, sometimes frugal.

Gideon had to have a quizzical look on his face when God told him that he had too many men to deploy into battle. Did he wonder whether or not God really wanted him to win the battle?  But, God had His reasons, as He always does and in this case, He shared them with Gideon.  He cut Gideon’s army size back to let His might be shown.  And Gideon, in that moment, had to trust God with the lives of his warriors and himself.  And of course, God delivered.  When we feel like we have been cut back or have less than we think we need, let’s not forget that when we allow God to be on our side with us, His less can also be His more for us.

Reference: Judges 2:7 (New Living Translation)