The Enemy's Army

The Kingdom of Judah was surrounded by enemy armies. King Jehoshaphat prayed:

O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you....

...we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.


God's answer:

Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's.

(Read the entire remarkable story in 2 Chronicles 20).


Anything that makes us call on God is a good thing!

Anything!

God can arrange our circumstances so that we are desperate for His intervention.

It is sometimes said that "God helps those who help themselves."

No, God helps those who are helpless to help themselves.

That's us.

Surrounded by enemies, emissaries of the Enemy,
we are helpless to help ourselves, and as soon as we realize that, we can call to God for His help.

Anything that makes us realize our helplessness is a good thing!

Any circumstance that makes us feel needy and
desperate -- it is a good thing!

The Jews were not strangers to helpless situations. Back in Exodus, chapter 2, we about their desperate situation hundreds of years earlier in Egypt:

The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help went up to God. God heard their groaning and remembered His covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob...
Exodus, Chapter 2




Why does God hear us in our pain? Why does He rescue us (over and over again)?

King David tells us in 2 Samuel 22:20:

He rescued me because He delighted in me!


Wow! He delights in us!