If you would ever perform a “prayer audit” on the content of your communications with God, especially of those prayers that request help, it should come as no surprise that 100 percent of them involve prayers for more—better health, more money, better job, better home. God always loves to hear from us, appreciates the trust and respect we show him, and actually gives us as much as he thinks we can handle.

But—sometimes he thinks we have too much, that he can do more for us by subtraction rather than addition. Seriously! When the crisis with the Midianite attacks was reaching an intolerable point, God announced his rescue plan to a hero named Gideon: “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me’” (Judges 7:2).

This is the balancing act with our faith lives that God constantly works at. He loves to give us things, but the risk is that we grow proud, that we forget the true cause and effect of solving our problems. He had to prune down Gideon’s army so that Israel would give him glory for the victory.

Here are two challenges for you: when you accomplish something significant with your own mind and resources, humbly give God credit. And when you experience subtractions from your life, assume that God is going to do great things through your weakness.