STAND and PRAISE

Stand and Praise


I was recently studying in 2 Chronicles during my devotion and was moved by the events that occurred in chapter 20. The king of Judah at that time was Jehoshaphat. Like us, Jehoshaphat was not perfect and made a lot of mistakes, but he truly loved the Lord and tried to do what was right in His sight.
The chapter begins with word coming to the king of an impending attack by other nations. (vs.1-2). I think we could all relate this to the many fears, trials and temptations we face daily. The question then is how did Jehoshaphat deal with this threat. In verse 3, because of his fear, he sought the Lord and called for a nationwide fast. Then all the people came together to seek God’s guidance (vs.4). When everyone was gathered, Jehoshaphat led his people in prayer, proclaiming God’s greatness and power to do all things.(vs.5-12). If we face problems today, either personally or as a church family, we should come together as one and always pray for each other. I feel Jehoshaphat made a bold statement of faith in vs.9 when he said that even if sword, judgement, pestilence, or famine should come upon them, they will stand before God and He will hear and save them. The king understood that they were outnumbered and had no power to defeat the enemy but vowed to keep their eyes on the Father. (vs.12). We too have no power over sin in the flesh, but if we keep our eyes on Him, sin will be defeated. Through a prophet, God spoke to all His people and told them that all they need to do is stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. (vs.15-17) I know I have a tendency to want to pick something back up and try to manipulate it, especially when it seems like He’s not solving the problem as quickly as I would like. If we could just take ourselves out of the equation and stand, we’d realize that the battle is His.
Now let’s take it a bit further. (As if just standing isn’t hard enough sometimes). As we read on, we find that not only did they stand in faith, but before the battle had begun, they stood and praised God with voices high. (vs.19) The king consulted his people and appointed people to sing to the Lord and praise the beauty of holiness. The people then went out before the army. As they started singing and praising, God had already started, so when they came over a rise to look upon the enemy, they were already dead. (vs.21-24). What would happen if the next time we were facing a battle, we STOOD, SANG and PRAISED. You never know, the battle might already be won.
J G