34. WINNING LIFE’S BATTLES 2 Chron: 20v12

With God’s help, King Jehoshaphat defeated three much larger armies than his, and his victory teaches us how we too can win life’s battles. First you have to identify your enemy, many of us have no idea who our real enemy is. We think it is the person who is interested in taking our job, our spouse or our money. But many times our enemy is our own attitude! It’s not so much what’s happening that gets us down, It’s our response to the situation. Before you can win on a personal level, you must identify the enemy. Watch how Jehoshaphat reacted when he heard “A vast Army” was coming against him. He was “alarmed”(2 Chronicles 20;2-3). That’s a fairly typical human response. We see a big problem, panic and become fearful about what’s going to happen to us .Now, in truth fear isn’t all bad, unless we deal with it in the wrong way. We can use it to motivate us to conquer the problem and drive us closer to God. It’s when we get discouraged, give up, get angry and start asking, “Why me, Lord”? That fear defeats us. If you are in a situation that’s filling you with fear and anxiety, Remember - God doesn’t respond to need, He responds to faith. so stake your faith on His unshakeable Word and stand on His promise.(Isaiah 41;10) says--”Fear not for I am with you; be not dismayed, For I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” Unshakeable trust in God’s Word brings His help. Secondly, we have to admit our own inadequacy. The only people God can’t help are those who don’t think they need His help. King Jehoshaphat said in (2 Chronicles 20; 12) “We have no power to face the vast army that is attacking us. We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on You “ Often our eyes are on everyone and every thing – except God – The only one who can solve our problems. Our circumstances are like a mattress, if we’re on top we can rest easy, but if it’s on top of us we can get suffocated. So, to win over our circumstances we must keep our eyes on the Lord. Remember, (Zechariah 4;6) which says “It’s not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord” None of us can live the Christian life by our own strength because we have a power shortage. we need the power that comes from letting God’s Spirit live through us. Try to imagine a glove, on its own it is limp and powerless, but once a hand fills that glove it becomes useful and effective. In (Acts 1;8) we read that Jesus said “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” Jesus often spoke of the Holy Spirit as “The Helper,” So when you don’t know what to do, stand on His promise; (In John14;26) “The Helper, The Holy Spirit, whom The Father will send in my name...will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” If we fight in our own strength we’ll lose. But when we draw on the power of God’s Spirit which is within us we’ll win. Thirdly, take your problems to the Lord, In the midst of His crises Jehoshaphat set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast. Why is prayer often the last thing we think of? Because we are so self-centred, and arrogant we want to work out our problems ourselves not wanting to ask God’s help, and that is a dangerous attitude to have towards God. When we’re facing life’s battles prayer should be our first resort not our last. And sometimes when the problem doesn’t yield to prayer alone, God leads us to add a second element; “Fasting”. Ever tried it? Fasting isn’t something mystical or mysterious; It’s about focus! It’s saying ‘Lord, I can do without many things, but I can’t solve this problem without You, so instead of being preoccupied with TV, or food, or Social Media, I’m going to spend time seeking Your face. Cornelius a Gentile, fasted and prayed for four days asking for direction. As a result, God sent Peter to his house to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles and in the process changed the course of history. In order to know who to appoint to leadership positions, the New Testament church, fasted, prayed and asked God for guidance and as a result one of the most dynamic evangelistic teams of all time, “Paul and Barnabas” was born (see Acts 13;2-3). When you get serious enough to fast and pray about your problem, God will guide you to the solution. Fourthly, God wants us to relax in our Faith, When we give the problem to God, get your hands off it. In (2 Chronicles 20;15) God responded to Jehoshaphat’s prayer “The battle is not yours but God’s” Many of us try to fight God’s battles in our strength. In the initial flush of becoming a Christian we are eager to win the world to Christ, but don’t realise what’s involved. Then after we’ve worked hard under our own steam, reality sets in and we end up crawling back on our hands and knees, disappointed because we think we’ve let God down. But He reassures us, “You didn’t let me down, because you weren’t holding me up.!! The truth is we don’t hold God up – He holds us up! We don’t have Him in our hands, He has us in His hands! And He’s telling us to relax in faith and let Him do the work through us. In (Colossians 2;6 Paul wrote As you received Christ Jesus as your Lord, continue to live your life in Him.” In other words, Remember how you first became a believer – by simple faith in the finished work of Christ – and continue to live by simple faith. You didn’t become a Christian by striving for perfection and doing good works. Good works have nothing to do with it! Salvation is a free gift. God doesn’t need us to micromanage things; He has everything under control, what He wants is for us to relax and allow Him to live through us Fifthly, In (2 Chronicles 20;17) God told Jehoshaphat “Stand firm” What does it mean to “Stand Firm” when you’re in a crises? Your whole being is calling out to you to do something, But God says “Stand Firm” It means ..Stop, and allow a mental attitude of quiet confidence that says “I’m going to trust God with this.” and let whatever happens happen. Now watch God work. It’s never God’s will for us to run away from a difficult situation, If we do, the situation will only follow us a bit further down the line. It may not look the same, but it will be the same. Why? Because God wants to teach us that He is sufficient for any problem. If we don’t learn this today, we will learn it next week, next month or next year, but eventually we will learn it, and the sooner the better. We can save ourselves many problems by “Standing Firm” and waiting in quiet confidence for God to work it out for us.. So what do we “Stand Firm” on. (2Chronicles 20;20) Tells us, “Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; Have Faith in His prophets and you will be successful” First we need to “Stand Firm” on the character of God. God is Faithful and we can depend on Him. Second we need to “Stand Firm on the writings He has given us through His prophets. In other words the Truth of the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word, and we need only rely in quiet confidence on His written promises. So “Stand firm on the unchanging character of God and the unchanging promises of His word. Sixth, Thank God in advance. Imagine standing on a mountaintop looking across a valley to the mountain on the other side. A big battle is about to take place down below, on one mountain three enemy nations are poised and waiting to devastate Israel. The Israelites are on your mountain and their leader Jehoshaphat tells them “Here’s God’s battle plan all of you who sing in the choir, I want out front” So the army goes marching in to battle with the choir out in front singing praises to God!! Did the plan work? Well yes it did. The opposing armies got confused and started killing each other. And all the Israelites had to do was divide up the plunder! Why did God do it this way? As a visual object lesson to teach us to praise Him in Faith even before the victory happens. When we pray, Lord, I know I have problems, but I know and believe in advance there is no problem You can’t handle. Three things will then take place, 1. Our atmosphere changes, we no longer feel afraid because we have the assurance of God’s presence. 2. Our attitude changes, and we begin to say, Lord, this may be too big for me, but it’s not too big for You. 3. Our approach changes, and instead of speaking words of doubt, we start speaking words of faith, and because our faith honours God, He honours our faith and the battle begins to turn in our favour. Now there’s another important key to victory, Don’t just praise God for a while and then stop, Keep praising and thanking Him until your breakthrough comes. Thank you for reading my thoughts on ‘Winning Life’s Battles,’ The main thing to remember is...Satan doesn’t want us to trust The Lord, and will do and say anything to us to discredit Him, so if we can show God that He and His Word is what we trust and rely on, He will come to our help and send His Holy Spirit when we call on Him. May God keep us safe in His care. Phaline.