“Less is more”

Terry Dashner…………Faith Fellowship Church of Broken Arrow, OK 74013

I read again God’s words to Gideon. As I read these familiar words they pulsated throughout my afternoon. God told Gideon, “’…and you shall defeat Midian as one man.’” (Judges 6:16) (NASB)

As one person you will subdue the enemy. Has God ever spoken words like these to you? Has He ever reassured you that you would be an army of one against the forces of evil assaulting you?

Before I go further with this topic, let me make a bold statement. God doesn’t defeat the enemies of the Cross by the masses, but by one. The one is Jesus Christ. We are one in Him. In Him we are greater than all the world’s armies, navies, air corps, or special-forces. In Christ and through Him—although we two (Jesus and me) are fewer—yet we are mighty in battle over the hoards and masses of evil. Do you believe this? I believe it is true.

It’s not the committees of the world that move the forces of good. It’s the lone person appalled at the sight of evil and injustice. It’s not the thousands that attend churches every Sunday that carry out ministry and mission statements. It’s a handful of lovers who love God and people more than they love the luxury of comfort zones. Are you hearing me? Can you agree with this bold proposition?

Gideon had 32,000 soldiers to kick the Midianites back to Midianite country. He kept losing men up to the day of battle, but God was pruning Gideon’s army. God told Gideon he had too many troops. God pruned the ranks until there were only 300 men. This begs the question, when is less—more?

Less is more when God is in it. As a matter of fact if you try to add more help to God’s help, your additional help will just get in the way. Lord, all I need is you, plus wealth, housing, career, popularity, and more help—right? Wrong. Jesus said He is all we need. How can this be? If we have Jesus, we have a legal and universal right to everything else we need and even desire for this life. If your building foundation is deep and expansive, you can build out and up, up, up. If you have no foundation or one that is too small, well, you get the picture…Jesus is the true foundation, the Rock, the Corner Stone, the…

Can you hear me yet? Good.

Two plus two equal four. That will never change, will it? God is unchanging, and in Him you can not lose, no never. Whether a believer lives or dies, she wins for eternity. Wow! That’s powerful but, then again, sometimes the less your mind knows the better prepared your spirit is to trust God’s deliverance. Can I get an Amen?

Consider this in closing. Two plus two equal four. To verify the answer, I must subtract two from it. I learned this procedure when I was in the second or third grade at Southside Elementary School in Broken Arrow, OK. It blew me away! Because mathematics is an absolute, I don’t have to guess at my work. I can check and verify the answers immediately. In the problem above, it’s one of the lesser integers that becomes paramount to the answer. Is there ever an advantage to lessening the sum? Yes, when you have to verify the sum.

Now stop me if I’m dreaming, but I’m beginning to see a pattern here. It takes the “less” to verify the “more?” There’s something to the, “…pressed down shaken together…” There is great benefit in pruning the excess. For me, it’s the “less” I’ve come to enjoy in life that measures the quality of the “more.” If adding something to my life affects the quality of the ‘less” I don’t want it. Say what? I’m saying that my life seems to get better and richer with the less I have more than the more I have, especially as I get older is this true. For example, I don’t need more suits and ties—I’m retired. I don’t need fancier vehicles—they cost too much to maintain. I don’t need more parties to attend—I’m finding enrichment in being quiet before God. I don’t need more money—I’m enjoying giving away the excess to the Kingdom of God, and God keeps giving it back to me in greater measure.

I wished I had discovered these principles of living as a young man. But, I didn’t—you guessed it—I was too busy trying to get more.

Keep the faith. Jesus is coming again.

Pastor T.

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