The poet Robert Burns was a peasant and a plow boy. And yet he caught the story of the poor tenant farmer, the field mouse and the modest daisy and sang of them in melodies that shall never die.
The astronomer William Herschel was a poor music teacher saving his meager earnings to buy a telescope and yet he found new stars in the diadem of night.
Abraham Lincoln was a backwoods man and a rail spliter and yet he rendered such service to his country and to the world that his name will never fade from the memory of mankind.
And so the story runs through all history proving that the greatest triumphs in all ages have been the triumphs of toil over poverty and privations.
Columnist John R. Gunn writes, "Instead of poverty being a handicap it is often proved a blessing to the man of high purpose and determination. The man who is born and reared in the midst of ease and luxury, as a rule, is not the one who achieves greatness."
Gideon tried to make poverty an excuse when the Lord summoned him to deliver Israel from the enemy, but God said, Go. Have I not sent thee?
Most of the great heroes in the Bible sprang from the ranks of the poor and the lowly. Indeed, this is true of most of the great heroes and leaders of thought and achievement in all history.
If the voice of some great need or task is summoning you to high endeavor, do not plead Gideon's excuse. That voice is God's call to you and with it is His promise, Surely I will be with thee.