Let God Battle This One
say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”
(Isaiah 35:4)
Have you ever felt like you just have to do something to solve the problem. You know everything is out of your hands, but if you don’t do SOMETHING the problem just won’t get fixed! That’s how I use to be. I couldn’t stand to see problems not fixed. I couldn’t stand to not get something resolved in the next 5 minutes. It just had to be fixed now or the world will end! Thankfully, the world didn’t end and it was just my impatience that made the problem worse…to me.
If there is one thing God is…He’s patient. He knows the right time to get involved. He observes us, always keeping a close eye on us even when we don’t think He’s really there. I was a very impatient person and always liked to get everything taken care of as quick as possible. There’s nothing wrong with that. We must value time and take care of what God has placed into our hands. We are to do our best to resolve issues. We are to do our part in the matter. But there comes a time when we see things going in a wrong direction no matter how hard we try to make it right that we have to step back and let God step in. During this time it won’t be easy and you will feel anxious and like you are about to explode…but you won’t. You will, however, feel uncomfortable during this time. You will feel like you aren’t doing enough or anything at all. You will experience fear, worry and concern. You will experience doubt and wonder “does God really want me to step back or should I really be doing something?” These are the times you must take all these concerns and thoughts to the Lord and lay it at His feet. If He wants you to do something, He will let you know. He will open up the door to it.
There comes a time when we must learn to allow God to do His work and let Him battle for us. He is our shield and defense:
The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him. (Psalm 28:7)
There have been times that I’ve had to step back and allow the Lord to work. It was some of the hardest times of my life. All I could do was pray, encourage and pray some more. For one who was impatient and a fixer, God was breaking me and working in me as well. He was teaching me to trust Him while instilling in me patience and faith. There were times I questioned “God, am I doing the right thing? Am I doing enough? Should I be doing more?” but I remained off to the side, supplying hope to the person when needed and praying with them. Then I had to pray and speak hope to myself! It’s never easy to watch a loved one go through so much yet you know God is breaking them down and building them back up. You know this is what is needed to heal them. Still, it’s never easy even when you know the truth. While God is working in them, He’s working in you as well. It’s only at the end, when you look at how far that person has come or even yourself that you see and think “yeah, I’m glad I took a step back and let God battle this one”.
There will be times when we have to do our part, but there are going to be times when we have to take a step back and let God do His work. We can’t take the chance of being an obstacle in His work or in someones walk. We always have to set our eyes on the One who can resolve every issue and fix every problem which is Christ. Sometimes it’s not easy to be steadfast in faith when we look out into the world and see so many things going on…fighting, arguing, terrorism, hate crimes, murders, rapes, violence, sickness, etc. All of this can cause a lot of fear and intimidation to make one want to gather their family together and hide in their homes and close their eyes. True, we can’t do much about what is going on in the world per say, but there are things we can do. First and foremost, it is our obligation to pray about what we are seeing. We must keep in constant contact with God and stay close to Him. When we pray, He will hear. Sometimes things have to get worse before it gets better so we must not allow what we are seeing on the surface to cause us great fear even though we are praying for things to get better. Sadly, the light of Christ is being removed our of our world on a daily basis from our homes, workplace, our schools, our communities, etc and when you remove light, all you have left is darkness. We must pray for Christ’s light to come back into this world. We must pray for His light to shine through us so we can reach others and that only happens when we repent of our wrong doings, accept His gift of salvation, and begin reading His word…the Bible…and applying it to our every day lives. We then show His love to others and introduce them to Christ. When we stop acting like the world and begin acting more like Christ, that is how we become different. Where the world offers anger and violence, we must offer love and safety and hope. We offer what Christ offers. No, it doesn’t mean we become so passive that we just lay down and allow others to trample on us, but it does mean we do exactly as scripture says, which is opposite of the world. During the holocaust, there were some who were held captive but they continued to shine the light of Christ to others, bringing the Word of God to others and instilling hope and praying with them when it was safe to do so. That hope and prayer enabled some to keep moving through their captivity even though death and despair was all around them. It was their faith, their hope, their trust in Christ that kept them going and gave them a great testimony to share with others. We must do the same. What else can we do? We be more involved in our schools and community, voice our concerns to our leaders, and be alert to what is going on. We can vote during elections for the person who will be attentive to the concerns of our nation…one who has godly values instead of worldly values.
There isn’t anything God can’t do. He is all powerful and all knowing. He can see further than we can and knows the exact steps we must take though we may plan to go in a different direction as we see in Proverbs 16:9:
“A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.”
Whatever you’re going through at this time, ask God to show you your part and when to take a step back and allow Him to do His part, then watch the Master at work!
Lord, I admit I don’t always know when I should act and when I should let you take over. I ask that you make it clear to me at this time. I want to see my problem resolved. I want to be healed and I want to see others be healed but I do not want to be a stumbling block for You, myself or anyone because I put my hands in a situation they may not belong in. Grant me clarity, oh Lord, so the issue can be resolved the right way. Grant me patience to allow you to do Your work knowing your timing is perfect. I ask this in Jesus name…Amen.