2026 started off pretty rough for me. My season of isolation, brought on by living on my own and struggling to find a sustained, committed community over the first year and a half of my PhD program, compounded into an emotional knot that was difficult to work through. Couple that with feeling defeated and despondent about the state of higher education and questioning whether I could endure in a place so anti-Christian, I was just about ready to quit and walk away from my program.

Then, at the end of January, I spent some time in the story of Gideon (Judges 6-8). In that story, I saw myself in Gideon’s shoes. I recognized how the Lord works to both call us to hard things and equip us with Himself to do those hard things.

What interested me almost right away about Gideon is that he is a coward. Yes, he is remembered as one of the greatest of Israel’s judges, but if you go back and read Judges 6-8, Gideon’s fear is very visceral. He consistently questions God and seeks reassurance from Him. The fleece and the dew, one of Gideon’s most memorable moments, is only one example of Gideon asking God to reassure him as God calls him to raise up an army and defeat Israel’s enemies.

And yet, despite Gideon’s fear, God doesn’t rebuke Gideon for his hesitation and doubt. He answers Gideon. He reassures him. He is patient with Gideon. But God still asks Gideon to do scary things. Instead of giving Gideon a large army to assuage Gideon’s concerns, God instead has Gideon pare down his number of men to just a few hundred. It’s the Lord’s way of reminding Gideon that his hope is ultimately in God, not in his army, and I find it a good reminder of how God continues to work in the same way. He is still patient and present, but our fear does not mean He’s going to immediately remove what is causing our anxiety or flickers of doubt. Instead, He comforts us and reassures us while still pushing us forward.

It’s not just in Gideon’s story where this pattern is at play. In part of my study of Judges 6-8, I looked through Scripture at other examples where God both calls people to difficult things and how God equips them. Jesus says this to His disciples: “I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). As Christians, God sends us out just as He sent Gideon, and Moses, and Isaiah. However, He does not send us out alone. The Gospel of John’s ending tells us Jesus sends us with His Truth and Peace. Whenever and wherever God sends, in fact, He equips, no matter how inadequate or fearful we may be or believe that we are. The Bible is full of reassurances that God is present with us in the midst of difficult circumstances. God tells Gideon that “God is with you” (Judges 6:16). Elsewhere in Scripture, we’re told to not fear because of God’s presence with us, including in Deuteronomy 20:1, Joshua 1:9, Psalm 23:4, Isaiah 8:8-10, and Acts 18:9-10, just to list a few examples. Jesus also reassures His disciples in the Great Commission that “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). And Paul reminds us in Romans, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (8:31). When we are sent, we are also promised God is with us, and it is through Him that we are able to do and to face difficult circumstances.

This encounter with the story of Gideon and the reminder of God’s sending and equipping snapped me out of my spiral of despair. The Lord absolutely answered my prayers for wisdom and courage by leading me to that passage at that time. I am reassured, as Gideon was in his own battles, that the Lord has called me to be a reflection of the Gospel in my current place, and that I am far from alone (no matter how isolated I may feel at times). For Jesus is always with me, and He is my stronghold against the storms and wolves of the world.

Wherever you find yourself on this Easter Sunday, I pray that you would also be reminded that God is with you in your current season, whether you’re also in a dark place or whether you’re in a sweet season. What God calls us to may change (and likely will) over the coming years, but whatever He calls us to, be reassured that He gives you the strength you need to face it, because He is our strength.

Happy Easter, my friends. Thanks be to God for the coming of Jesus, and the abundant blessing that is Christ’s presence in our lives. May we remember that His peace and presence are with us in all that we face.