We're all a Gideon at some point...

At church this morning our message was on Gideon (Judges 6:1-22) and him hiding from the Midianites in the winepress trying to sort through wheat, so they wouldn't steal it. He kept shoveling the wheat up, only for it to come down and look as it did before. God comes and tells him he is a mighty warrior and he is going to help rescue Israel from Midian. Gideon doesn't believe him and makes up a ton of excuses in efforts to prove God wrong, but he can't.

The four main points our associate pastor spoke this morning are as follows:
1- God's pursuit is bigger than my circumstance
2- God's plan is bigger than my imagination
3- God's power is bigger than my excuses
4- God's promise is bigger than my problem

Now, I want to add some of my own notes I took this morning...
-Am I listening to God in all things?
-As long as I keep doing the same things to get out of my rut, I won't get anywhere.
-STOP considering circumstances more than God.
-God can, will, and already has found me!
-God finds me even when my heart isn't in the right place.
-God pictures me as I am (how He see's me), not as I am (how I see me) 2 Cor. 2:9!
-Don't limit God with my imagination!
-Don't see myself as who I am, but whom God is making me!
-STOP saying, "yeah but I (me/my)..." and start saying, "yeah but I (God)..."
-It is KEY to change the way I think!!!!
-I am not stuck, I am a mighty warrior, I am a mighty woman of God! It's time to step out of the winepress and move on!!!!

We're all a Gideon at some point. We get in a situation or encounter a circumstance that we can't seem to get out of whether we put ourselves there or not. We try by doing the same things over and over only to find that we aren't moving in the right direction at all; just in circles. We must change the way we think!

I have been stuck in a specific winepress, if you will, for almost 6 months. I have prayed about it, cried out for help, screamed, and gotten angry because nothing was changing and seemed to only get worse. I realize now that though I THOUGHT I was doing everything right, I still hadn't changed my thinking. God has found me in this winepress and He has just been waiting for me to FULLY SURRENDER and take part in the freedom He already had for me.

As service was ending in prayer, my eyes were closed, and I saw a hole with a ladder in it. A young woman was climbing up with her head down, but when she saw a man knelt at the opening, arm outstretched to help her the rest of the way, her face lit up. As soon as she was standing on the ground, outside the hole, I saw the face of Jesus embracing His little girl once again.

I shed a few tears after this (vision) because I know that young woman is me, and God wanted to show me that He can, will, and HAS found me!