Our great God of all, why did You not cast us aside the moment we sinned? Why did You not turn from us when we turned from You? Why did You pursue us when we pursued evil? Because of Your great love. You have loved us beyond measure, beyond the reaches of the ocean and the stars, Your love stretches. You reach to the broken, the weak, to those who have lost hope and we thank You for being such a loving God. You have done what only You could do: You have saved us from ourselves. You knew that after we sinned, You must not let us live forever or else forever we would live in our broken condition, thank You for not letting us suffer like that; one lifetime is enough. We praise You and thank You for all You have done and are going to do. In Jesus name, Amen.
What would you think of a basketball game where team A had five players on at all times and team B had ten players on at all times and all players were of the same skill level? Or what about a war where everyone is equally trained, but one side has 400,000 people and the other side has 800,000 people? It seems pretty obvious what the outcome of these two situations would be. Unless, the lesser team gets incredibly lucky, they are faced with inevitable defeat. In 2 Chronicles 13, we find a similar story of a war between two leaders. One named Abijah with "400,000 chosen men", and Jeroboam with "800,000 chosen mighty warriors." Notice the difference in the text? Not only did Abijah have half as many men as Jeroboam did, they were only men! Whereas Jeroboam had experienced, mighty warriors. Good luck Abijah.
Although man-power between the two armies was far from fair, Abijah declared his loyalty to God. Now you may be thinking "okay, for sure Abijah will win" and he does. He is victorious and kills 500,000 of Jeroboam's men before they give up. "Abijah and his people struck them with great force, so there fell slain of Israel 500,000 Chosen men. Thus the men of Israel were subdued at that time, and the men of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the Lord, the God of their fathers" (2 Chronicles 13:17-18). This story shows that it isn't the man power that determines a war. We can take that even further and say it isn't the man power that determines whether a project will succeed or fail; it isn't the will of man that decides what will happen; it isn't the strength of man that determines anything. God alone is the great determiner.
What is greater than 800,000 men? God. What is greater than depression? God. What is greater than anxiety? God. What is greater than death? God. We are called as Christians, to step out in faith as Abijah did during this time of war. We should be stepping out of our comfort zone, to minister to people, and to do the will of God as "little Christs". Just as we see in this story in 2 Chronicles, it greatly pleases God when his people step out in faith. What does this require of us? It requires that we surrender ourselves to him; it requires that we possibly give up our swords, and walk around the building yelling until it collapses; it requires obedience to do, not that which you want to, but that which God has called you to.
Someone will say "if it pleases God to have faith in anything, would it be wrong to have faith that God will catch you if you jump off of a building for fun?" As ridiculous as this question seems, it makes a good point. Shouldn't there be a line drawn for faith we can have in God? No, there shouldn't be. Here is where the line lies: the line is the difference between trusting in God and testing God. The former is a declaration of your faith to God, the latter is a way of seeing if this "god" is someone to be trusted. God loves those who believe without seeing, and those are the people he blesses (John 20:29). He does also bless those who have seen and have believed, but again, the question must be asked as to whether that person believes because they have seen. And if they have, a serious self-examination needs to be done.
The point is that it pleases God when we are faithful under circumstances that seem to not be in our favor. If it is a calling from God, it will always succeed. Always remember that my friends. God be near you today and speak to your heart and may you pursue everything you do in faith and love. Blessings to you.
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