"WHEN YOU KNOW YOU'VE BEEN HAD"

Have you ever felt like you fought a loosing battle?

I know that life can take sudden turns for the worse and when that happens we tend to react with panic, fear and sometimes even feel like running for our lives. Isn't this so true of almost everybody in the world today? Yes, there are still a few unusual people who bow their backs, hold their heads high and will fight on to the death. There are those people who will begin to plan another strategy and another angle of attack to hold off the approaching army, but there are times when even those brave and stubborn people must realize that they too must seek help to win.

In the Word of God we find a King who had just experienced that feeling of fear and panic and just didn't know what he needed to do. His name was Jehoshaphat and he had just been given the message that he was going to be attacked, not by one, not by two, but by three armies. These armies were of the children of Moab, Ammon and the Ammonites. He was informed that the group was of a very great multitude coming from the sea and they were getting closer every minute. Don't you think that this king who had been placed over the children of Israel and had served the Lord in all his ways may have been a pretty fearless kind of guy? After all he had the Lord of all creation on his side! how would you have reacted to this message knowing that you had a much smaller army? Let's read a passage that shows his reaction to this message;

2 Chronicles 20:3-4 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the LORD: even out of ALL the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD. (For a way out & direction)

Wow! Can you believe that? It says that Jehoshaphat (the King) feared! What did he fear? He was afraid of the armies headed in his direction and he knew that he was in an impossible situation to escape alive. He couldn't help his feelings of fear and panic, BUT he could help how he responded to the news that had overwhelmed  him at that moment of surprise!

Haven't we all gotten surprises in our lives that shock us and leave us feeling helpless or in a total state of panic? Yes, I have experienced this and I know that anyone alive today has also been through this feeling and some may have even felt this way recently. My friend, let's learn from the reaction of this King to his fearful situation, his helpless situation. He had no hope of winning. He knew he was doomed to loose this battle and also to loose all that he had received from the Lord himself! What did he do though?

He set himself to the LORD! This means that he turned his face to the LORD and turned his attention to the LORD for help. Then he proclaimed to all of his kingdom to fast and pray. You see, the prayer and fasting come before the impossible over and over in the Bible. When I read this my first thought was of how the lack of food would have made the warriors of Judah even weaker physically as the armies of their enemies gained ground towards the great attack on their city. Knowing that they would grow weaker without food and continuing to proceed with the fast was a total move of faith in the LORD. As a matter of fact, it was the only choice that King Jehoshaphat had, that presented any chance of victory in this hopeless situation!

Think about this for a minute! Every life was in jeopardy and their very existence was at stake at this moment of their lives! Is this where you are in your life today? There are millions of people in the US right now that don't know where there sustenance will come from for the next day, week or month.

To be continued....

Hold fast and look to the LORD for a way, find a way to fast and meditate on thanking God for the way He is going to work in your life. Let's see how this situation turns out my next post.

"WHEN YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T LOSE"

Winning with the right attitude!

The LORD had spoken to Judah;the inhabitants of Jerusalem and king Jehoshaphat saying, "This saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's."

The first thing that the LORD wanted them all to realize was that He had the battle taken care of and they would not need to be afraid. What would it be like in each of our lives if we all could feel like that whenever something came up that we couldn't handle?

My daughter called me one day about something she was going through and I suggested that she pray and ask God to fight that battle for her. That's when she told me that she had been learning to whisper prayers to God all through the day. What a blessing it was to hear that she has already been doing this at the early age of twenty-two. Oh that we would do just that every day and fear not nor be dismayed! The literal Hebrew translation for "dismayed" is to "break down or be confused". The LORD was saying to those who faced sure destruction, "Don't be afraid and don't get confused and break down emotionally either! Don't give up!"

Let's look at the next thing that the LORD said through his servant Jahaziel;

2Chronicles 20:16-17 Tomorrow go ye down against them: behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel.
17 Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.

The LORD sent them to the enemy. They had been trusting in God up to this point, to say that He would fight the battle for them and they liked that part. Now the LORD is telling them to go out to meet the armies that want to defeat them! Have you ever thought about approaching a situation in your life, knowing you were destined to loose? Not a chance! But think about this for a minute! What if you knew you were going to win? How did you feel about approaching a situation in your life when you knew you would come out on top? You knew you were sure to win and you probably couldn't wait for the moment to arrive, could you? Were you feeling the thrill of victory? Did you throw your hands up in the air and shout the winner's "YES!"?

Have you ever noticed the different ways that Pro football players react whenever they scored the winning point? They all react differently,don't they? Some of them hold the ball over their heads and point at their chest,showing everyone who should get the praise. Some will turn and bang chests with their team mates and then get carried off the field in praise. Some will even kiss the ball as if it had some great power of it's own. But the player that catches my attention the most is the one who drops down on one knee and points his or her hand up to God! That is exactly how Jehoshaphat reacted when he knew his victory was sure and it was his humble attitude that also influenced the attitudes of all of Judah and Jerusalem! Just think about how different it would have been for their entire nation if he had started whooping and hollering and praising himself or his nation? But think about it, isn't that what the United States of America has been doing for a long time?

I remember when our military went over to bomb Iraq or Iran and all these songs began to emerge about the US and how proud we were to be an American and about our victory over there when we demolished their military forces. Songs like "Born In the USA","Proud to be an American" and "Bomb Iran" came out and people chanted the words to these songs publicly with a smile on their faces. I saw the pride of our nation begin to swell up it's proud head and the leaders even boasted publicly about how no one will mess with the USA. Think about how different that is from Jehoshaphat's attitude in this passage?

2Chronicles 20:18-19 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD.
19 And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a loud voice on high.

One of the most influential nations of their time had been influenced by a leader who loved and worshipped God. His attitude of thanks and praise to God showed as their king bowed his head with his face down to the ground worshipping God. The amazing thing is that a nation of people that love God will follow the leadership of a man of God with the right winning attitude!
Whooping and hollering, chest pounding, heads held high or singing songs of pride in the USA doesn't reflect the attitude of a nation that humbled themselves and prayed before offering up songs of praise to the LORD God of Israel. Can you see the difference in the attitudes of the leaders and citizens of our nation today and the attitude of king Jehoshaphat and the nation in this passage? Don't forget the key that makes all the difference between nations as we look back at the end of verse seventeen..."for the LORD will be with you." To be Continued.....

In the next chapter we will look at the outcome of having the right winning attitude and praising the LORD. We'll see what happens with those situations that look so hopeless!

Until then, remember to trust and praise God even when you are surrounded by impossibilities and the people, whose lives you impact, will be watching and following your example!