An Underdog’s Wisdom

O our God, won’t you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help.

2 Chronicles 20:12

WHEN KING JEHOSHAPHAT FINISHED his prayer, he looked up to see hordes of enemy soldiers amassed and ready to drive God’s people into the sea. He faced overwhelming military odds. He felt attacked. He felt powerless. And he felt clueless. He did not know how things would turn out.

Have you ever been in a position where you didn’t know what to do? Where you have more questions than answers, and the answers you do have don’t work? Maybe, like King Jehoshaphat, you feel powerless. You feel attacked. You feel like an army has come against you . . .

There is a great insight tucked into this verse. Like so many of the Bible’s great lessons, it is introduced by the word but.

“We do not know what to do,” the king prays, “but we are looking to God for help and deliverance.” To have your eyes on God means to trust Him, to count on Him, and to rely on Him. It means to anchor your peace in who He is rather than in what is happening around you. It is to live by faith and not by sight. In those moments when we step out in faith and trust God, our greatest enemy—unbelief—is defeated.

Faith against the odds is the victory that God wants us to experience most. Yes, there are enemies on the outside that must be defeated, but more than anything, God wants us to trust Him. He never fails to deliver.

BOTTOM LINE

When you face overwhelming odds with overcoming faith, you can’t lose. Is there some area in your life that requires great faith right now?

Moment of Strength: Psalm 27:1-6