God's Great Victories Намуна

Day 9: Power of my words

Think about:

King Jehoshaphat starts out shaken- other Bible versions say he was afraid, BUT that his first response was not to complain, not to hide, not to blame or not to get angry. His first response was to turn around and find God and ask for His help. 

It is OK to feel feelings of fear, anxiety or be upset or angry by what we see in the news, hear in the playground or at home, but what matters the most is how we act after feeling scared, anxious or shaken. God never changes, He never breaks His promise and He is always ready to listen and answer us. He is the best option to turn to when we feel scared.

What did Jehoshaphat do after that?

He prayed and he fasted (v 4-5).

He declared who God was to him and to the world (v 6).

He declared God’s strength (v 6).

He reminded himself of God’s blessings (v7-9).

He asked for help (v 12).

King Jehoshaphat didn’t know what to expect from God’s promise or how God would win the victory. He went out as prepared as he could be- but the thing he valued the most was praising God. So much so, he sent the choir out first declaring God’s praise before battle. What amazing faith from the king AND those who chose to sing for him! The Bible says that “as soon as they started shouting and praising” the enemy turned on themselves and was defeated. Praise beats an unseen enemy- will you praise God, even if you don’t know how your victory will come?

After the battle, which they never had to fight finished; King Jehoshaphat and his people were blessed abundantly. They weren’t just blessed with treasures (although that is so cool!). They were blessed with joyful relief (v 27) and years of peace (v 30). This is what God wants for us as well, and we should look forward to living life with joy, relief and peace.

What now?

How can you be like Jehoshaphat?
We need to know that life is going to sometimes make us feel scared or anxious, but we need to remind ourselves of what we will do when we feel like that. The best option is to go to God who loves us and cares for us so much. 

We can pray.

We can fast.  Fasting means giving up something- we could give up junk food (no one really needs that!). We could also give up some screen time, or video game time. 

We can speak out how good God is in our life. Reminding ourselves of how good God is, often makes us forget the thing that has made us anxious because we remember that God is looking after us so well!

We can kneel in prayer to God (yes actually get down on our knees to pray)! Why? Because it reminds us that God is King over everyone and everything, and it humbles our heart and helps us remember that we can’t control everything going on in our world.

And what did King Jehoshaphat do after that? He got up praised God as loud as he could! Let your neighbours hear you! Praise God loudly and all the time. Put on some praise and worship music and sing loudly or dance crazily. Write out your praise to God or talk to a friend, sibling, mum, dad, grandparent, aunty or uncle (or anyone) about how much you love God. All of these things count as praise to Him!

And know that God is in control of all things- the things that we can see and the things we can’t see. We just have to declare that He is in control!