100 Days of Right Believing: Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing (30 page)

H
ave you been in a situation where your circumstances appear to be completely hopeless? Where you felt immobilized and overwhelmed by the challenges surrounding you, with no way out or even a temporary respite in sight? Perhaps under the accumulated weight of it all coming against you at once, you feel as if your entire life is spiraling out of control and falling apart.

That is exactly what happened to King Jehoshaphat and the small tribe of Judah when they were besieged on all fronts by three powerful and bloodthirsty armies rapidly advancing toward Jerusalem (see 2 Chron. 20). With their enemies mercilessly bent on annihilating them and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they were facing a forlorn and hopeless situation, and it looked as though they were bound for a tragic end.

When Jehoshaphat was informed that a great multitude was coming against him, his first reaction was fear! I don’t know about you, but this gives me hope! I’m so glad that the Word of God gives us an authentic portrait of who Jehoshaphat was. He wasn’t a valiant warrior king who was always full of faith and endowed with a disproportionate dose of fiery courage, always ready to take down his enemies. No, he was a regular guy. He did what you and I would have done—he panicked.

But what set Jehoshaphat apart was that even when he was fearful, the very first thing he did was to “set himself to seek the L
ORD
” (2 Chron. 20:3). That is something you and I need to learn to do as well whenever we are fearful. Instead of spiraling deeper into the abyss of self-defeat, know that when you are feeling overwhelmed by your circumstances, that is the time you need to set yourself to seek the Lord. It’s certainly not the time to run away from
God or get bitter, angry, frustrated, and disappointed with Him. Hey, God is not the author of your troubles. He is the author and finisher of your faith, victory, and success.

Jehoshaphat shows us that it’s quite all right to experience bouts of fear from time to time. God doesn’t condemn you when you are afraid. But when you receive a negative medical report or some bad news about your family or business, set yourself to seek the Lord. Jesus is your answer! His perfect love for you will cast out all fear.

Y
esterday, we saw that when faced with what appeared to be certain destruction, King Jehoshaphat set himself to seek the Lord. Today’s scripture is part of his prayer.

Note that instead of rehashing his fears to the Lord and lamenting about how overpowered by their enemies their small tribe was, Jehoshaphat centered his prayer and thoughts on just how big and powerful his God truly is. He proclaimed boldly that “no one is able to withstand” the Lord—no one! In a hopeless situation, he
hoped
in the Lord.

I call that Bible hope! Hope is a beautiful word in the Bible. Hope in the New Testament is the Greek word
elpis
, which is defined as a “favorable and confident expectation” or “the happy anticipation of good.”
⁴
This means that when you hope in the Lord, there is a joy in your countenance (simply put, a smile on your face). There is a confident assurance in your heart that, bleak as the circumstances appear to be, it’s not over yet.

Unfortunately, the word “hope” as used in our modern vernacular is completely different and sometimes even antithetical to the way the Bible defines it. When we say things such as, “I hope that I will get the job,” our use of the word connotes uncertainty, doubt, and ambivalence.

The Word of God declares that “this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us” (Rom. 5:5
NLT
). We can have true hope—a certain, joyful, confident expectation of good—when we rightly believe how dearly God loves us! There is a direct and proportionate correlation between hope and rightly believing in God’s love for you. Hope springs in your heart when you believe that God loves you.

No matter how adverse your circumstances may seem today, put your trust in the Lord. Believe that God is working behind the scenes on your behalf, and that He is turning the situation around for your good (see Rom. 8:28). All His abundant heavenly resources, His power, His healing, His restoration, His deliverance, His provision, His favor, His help, His comfort, and His love are with you and on your side, waiting to be unleashed upon you. The Lord your God will open up the windows of heaven over your life and pour out for you such a blessing that there won’t be room enough to receive it! When our entire hope and trust is in Him, we can count on His promises toward us. This hope never disappoints, which means that your greatest victories are ahead of you.

W
e have seen King Jehoshaphat set himself to seek the Lord and pray with hope before all the assembly of Judah. It was then that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, who spoke the words of the Lord that we read in today’s scripture. On hearing these words of hope, all Judah humbled themselves before the Lord, bowing before Him and worshiping Him.

Today the Lord is saying the same words to you in your situation. Hope in Him for He loves you! You don’t have to live in fear and discouragement when you know that the battle is not yours, but the Lord’s. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. The battle is His, and you will not need to fight in it.

What do you do when you don’t know what to do? The best thing you can do is to
stand still
. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord in your situation.

But Pastor Prince, if I stand still, nothing will happen!

My friend, standing still is not inactivity or doing nothing. It’s a posture of hope, and it involves keeping your hope anchored on the person of Jesus and having a sure and confident expectation of good. When the marauding armies of Pharaoh were charging toward the children of Israel, hell-bent on annihilating them, Moses simply declared to the terrified Israelites, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the L
ORD
” (Exod. 14:13). The Hebrew word for salvation is
yeshua
, which is actually the name of Jesus. So salvation is the person of Jesus, and He is with you.

When you are caught in a hopeless situation, learn to position yourself—stand still and see the saving power of Jesus work on your behalf. He will never leave you nor forsake you (see Heb. 13:5). And as you center yourself, your thoughts, your beliefs, and your hopes on Him, He will lead you concerning what to do, just as He led Jehoshaphat to a triumphant victory over his enemies.