I will be with you ...

There are many things one might want to take stock of before going out in mission. Do you have the resources, can you see it through, do you have a good strategy? All good questions, all worth a thought.

Yet Gideon in Judges chapter 6 seemed to be given no time to think through these elements. Even with the little time he did have, his evaluation came to negative conclusions: 'I am the smallest, weakest ...'.

To this the Lord simply answered 'I will be with you'. After all, it was the Lord who was sending him out (see verses 14 and 16).

Sometimes our greatest asset is to simply know that the Lord has sent us, and will go with us.

Its not unlike the Great Commission at the end of Matthew 28. We focus of course on the 'go and make disciples, baptising ...'. That is good, it defines our mission imperative succinctly.  Yet let us not lose sight of the the sending ('Go ...') and the fact that 'surely I am with you to the very end of the age'.

In other words, let us know that we are sent, and that the Lord will be with us. Thats the deal, and there will be many times when that is all we need to know to continue out on our mission task.