Yesterday I listened to a wonderful message from the Bethel weekly sermons on the Creative power of Thanksgiving. It was so good and something I talked a little about on Wednesday about giving thanks in all circumstances and how that changes our circumstances.
These are some of my thoughts as I searched the scriptures he brought;
He talked from 2 Chron 20 about how Jehosphophat (King) feared the armies that were coming against him. Here was a king who was afraid. That gave me great encouragement right there, if a King can be afraid, then it's okay too if I am. I know for myself I am often afraid of things that I see coming and I don't know how to handle it. Neither did Jehosophophat and so he called all the people together and sought the Lord.
First position in our place of fear is to seek the Lord. Verse 12 "For we have no power against the great multitude that is coming against us, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon you." So often we don't know what to do but we need to turn our eyes upon Him. As we turn our eyes on Jesus our focus changes and we remember how big our God is and our small our problem is. We get things into perspective as usually the problem has become greater than God.
V15 "Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude for the battle is not yours but Gods" Point two is its not your battle but Gods.
V17 " You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you." The word here is to position yourselves and so I wonder what it means to position yourself?
V20 "Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established, believe His prophets and you shall prosper". For me the position is to "believe in our God". But also there is the 'stand still'. We often want to jump in and do something about it but sometimes we just need to wait to allow God to work it through. As we stand still, as we believe that God can make a way through it, hope returns, as we look to Him and seek Him, he shows us the way through.
People, it doesn't matter if you are afraid, who of us isn't at times, but in that we need to change our focus and seek the Lord and believe and as it says in verse 30; "Then the realm of Jehosphophat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around". There was a battle but it was won in the strength and strategy of the Lord, not in the fear and running around of man. God will give you rest and peace as we position ourselves and believe in Him and allow him to make the way.
If you listen to the message its great, a bit different, but what I have written here is what the Lord was showing me so well worth a listen.
http://www.ibethel.org/ podcasting/SOTWpodcast.xml
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