-12] Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. [12] The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” [13] “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”

] I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.

-16] Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” [15] “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” [16] The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”

] I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

NKJV] For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

] The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions.