Sometimes we think that great men must be brave.  Yet often God used humble, nervous people .  Gideon was one.  AD

Midianites often invaded Israel and stole the food they ate.  8S

One day Gideon was in the hills preparing food for his family.  4D

Suddenly a man appeared. JH

He called Gideon a great man. 8C

Gideon was surprised.  He felt he was of little value. 2S

The angel told him that God had chosen him to be a leader. KD

Gideon asked him to wait while he prepared some food for him. 4S

The food was put on a rock.  The angel touched the food with his rod and fire burnt it up.  Then the angel disappeared.  It was no joke. JOKER

Gideon's father had an orchard with an idol in it. KH

Gideon took ten servants , cut down the orchard and smashed the idol. 10C

The priests who worshipped the idol were blue with anger and sorrow. Blue backed card

Someone told on Gideon and so the priests took weapons and spades to kill and bury Gideon. 6S

Gideon's father stopped them by challenging them to let their God do it. KC

Gideon was a little fearful, but he went to the market place and blew a trumpet. 2H

Thirty. 3C

two thousand men came to fight with him. 2C

The trouble was, there were one hundred AS

and thirty 3S

five thousand enemy soldiers. 5S

Gideon's nerves got to him.  He felt as sick as a parrot. 6C

He went before God in prayer for help. 4H

One night he put out a fleece, and asked God to soak it with dew and leave the ground dry. AC

At five in the morning, Gideon went into the garden and found it had happened. 5C

The next night he asked for the opposite to happen.  He needed reassuring. 4C

Gideon prepared his men for battle by telling those that had no heart for the battle to go home.  Twenty two thousand left. 5H

God told him to test them again.  This time nine thousand 9C

seven hundred were sent home. 7C

They all went back to their wives QD

and mothers, QC

leaving him with three hundred men. 3D

Gideon took his men to the enemy camp and they saw the one hundred AH

and thirty 3H

five thousand enemy soldiers before them. 5D

Gideon was still nervous. JC

One night he took a servant with him JS

into the enemy camp.  They crept outside one of the tents and laid down. 10S

A Midianite soldier woke up.  He cried to his friend "I dreamt I saw a loaf of bread roll straight down the mountain and flatten a tent.  6D

7D

8D

9D

10D

"It's Gideon" said the other soldier, "they are too strong for us." 2D

They were flush with fear and embarrassment. 6H

7H

8H

9H

10H

Gideon's men now had a heart to fight. QH

They went to dig the graves of their enemies. QS

Gideon did not dress them up to the nines with armour.  He gave each of them a trumpet, a vase and a torch. 9S

They blew their trumpets, smashed the vases, lifted up the torches and shouted.  They felt like kings as the enemy fled.  KS

You may not be the perfect seven. 7S

You may even at times feel like a jackass, but if you keep humble and do what God says, you too can be a winner. JD

On each blank page of your life, God can start to write an amazing plan for your life, and give you real purpose for living. BLANK