and he said, “Listen carefully, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat.  This is what the Lord says:  ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast number, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.  Tomorrow, go down against them.  You will see them coming up from the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the valley facing the Wilderness of Jeruel.  You do not have to fight this battle, position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.  He is with you, Judah and Jerusalem.  Do not be afraid or discouraged.  Tomorrow, go out and face them, for Yahweh is with you.

2 Chronicles 20:15-17 HCSB

I know, I use this scripture often, but I love this scripture because King Jehoshaphat is informed that not one, but two, vast armies are coming against his people.  One army greatly outnumbers his, but there are two.  Now this is not good news. If ever there were a time to hit the panic button, this is it, right?  But Jehoshaphat loved and trusted the Lord.  So how did he handle this news?  Well the first thing he did was call for a fast.  You see a fast is our way of telling God, “Hey I am giving up something that takes a lot of my time or is important to me and I am going to devote that time and attention to You.  I am going to pray to You and devote all my attention to You.”  So the king calls for a fast and then he prayed.  Our scripture passage is God’s response.  How awesome is that?  God tells them not to worry, this is His battle and He will fight it for them.  All they have to do is put on their tough looking army gear and stand strong.  They just have to go out there and watch God destroy their enemies.  You gotta love it, right? God is clearly telling them, “you don’t have to get your clothes or your hands dirty boys, I got this!”  I love it.

You know what I love even more, I have seen God do the same for me.  I have faced some uphill battles.  I have come through some seemingly impossible situations, totally unscathed. It took me a while to catch on, but I have learned that if I put my complete trust in God, He will fight my battles. I have to turn it all over to Him. He doesn’t seem to care much for the game of Tug-of-War.  Once I gave it all to Him, He handled it all for me.  He takes good care of me.  He knows what I need before I need it and He provides for me.

Just like Jehoshaphat, I have had some mighty armies come against me, but God just had me suit up and stand still.  I just had to watch the Lord deliver me.  I pray for you today that when you face some scary situations in life that you don’t panic, but you pray.

If you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior and draw into a close relationship with Him, He’s got your back.  He will take good care of you.

I have lived my life where God was just a 911 call.  You know, He was like my panic button.  I didn’t really want to do things His way, but I wanted Him to get me out of a jam after I had screwed up.  Well, that didn’t always work so well. But now that I have given everything over to Him and I put Him first in my life, I know that He’s got any trouble that is headed my way.  It makes it a bit easier for me to not panic.  Oh, I will admit that there are times that I still panic, but then I think, “Hey, wait a minute, I am a blood bought child of God.  This is not my battle.  It’s His battle and He always wins”.  That’s pretty cool, don’t you think?

My prayer for you today is that you are living the kind of life where God is fighting your battles.  I pray that you are living safely in His protective realm.  Another one of my favorite scripture passages is Psalm 91.  That Psalm starts out by telling us that if we make the conscious decision to abide in the presence of our Almighty God, then we can rest in His shelter.  We can be safe and warm and dry.  He will go out into the cold pouring rain and protect us.

So today, if the vast armies are coming against you, don’t panic-pray.  Turn it over to God and watch what He can do.  You’ll be amazed!

Have a great day!