FORSAKE THE BASIC. PURSUE THE DEEP.

Any time you are faced with unfavorable odds, it is likely that God is giving Himself the opportunity to show you who He really is and what He is really capable of. In other words, it’s a set up. 

When the Israelites first left Egypt, there were many countries that sought to take advantage of their vulnerability and test their strength. Among them were the Ammonites and the Moabites however God did not instruct Israel to go to battle with them at that time and had they done so, it wouldn’t have ended well for them. It wasn’t until many years later that God yet again stirred their hearts against His people, setting the stage for His next victory. Here King Jehoshaphat is minding his business when he suddenly receives word that a great army is coming against him from beyond the sea. What he did next is noteworthy. After calling a fast and praying, he began to talk to God and to declare to Him who He is, saying, “O Lord God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven, and do you not rule  over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand you?”(2 Cor. 20:6,7). He goes on to recount what God had already done for His children, recalling how He led them into the promised land, and then he willingly admitted that he wasn’t sure what to do next but that he was going to trust God nevertheless.

God knows who He is and He knows what He’s capable of, but do you? When you find yourself in impossible situations that don’t have simple solutions, sometimes He wants you to do nothing more than just declare who He is to you. Declare that He is mighty and sovereign; declare that He is the ruler of all and there is no one else like Him in all the earth. Declare and acknowledge that He is the God that reigns and that He is the Lord and Savior of your life. He is your God that protects and your God that provides – the God that owns a thousand cattle on a hill. Tell Him that He is the Alpha and the Omega and that He is God from everlasting to everlasting.

When the time came for King Jehoshaphat and the Israelites to go to battle with the Ammonites, Moabites and the inhabitants of Mount Seir, they didn’t have to lift a sword because those armies ended up destroying one another, and God’s strength and power were revealed as a result. God is ready and willing to fight your battles and hand you the victory but He will not do that until you first acknowledge that He can. He doesn’t expect you to fight, He just wants you to believe that you’ve already won.
Photo Credit: <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/80317067@N03/14177736826/”>Peder Sterll</a> Flickr via <a href=”http://compfight.com”>Compfight</a&gt; <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/”>cc</a&gt;