II Chronicles 20 - "Surrounded"

I woke up this morning with these words going through my mind...

This is how I fight my battles
This is how I fight my battles
This is how I fight my battles
This is how I fight my battles

It may look like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by You
It may look like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by You
It may look like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by You
It may look like I'm surrounded but I'm surrounded by You

I had a dream last night where I was starting to get mad about a decision someone close to me made that affected me. In the dream, I started praying and the Lord quickly reminded me of this song. I was immediately at peace with the situation. When the person asked me if I were upset with them, my response was "the Lord will take care of things." That is not an easy way of handling such things. But we must remember things 'out of our control' belong in the Lord's hands, not ours. As I think about that statement it is kind of silly because everything belongs in the Lord's hands. We do not have to fret over decisions others make. All we have to do is trust God in the outcome. I wonder why I had this dream. I pray it is not that there is going to be a confrontation in my near future. But on the other hand I should pray differently. I should pray asking God to enable me to lean more on Him so my faith will grow in such a situation. So many times we ask God to protect us from this or that. I have started changing my prayers to asking God to use situations such as conflict to grow my faith. If life were perfect, there would be no reason for me to lean on His strength. 'Bad things' actually can be 'good things' when our spiritual lives are stretched. Woo hoo! There is peace in knowing this. There is not one thing we go through where we should be afraid. God already knows the outcome. He already knows if the malignant will be cancerous. He already knows when the prodigal son/daughter will return. He already knows if there will be enough money to pay all the bills. He already knows how there will be food on the table. Since He already knows such things we need to quit worrying and walk in obedience to His direction. He knows the outcome. Plain and simple. He knows. The things we go through in life are not ours to fret over but instead are ours to grow a deeper faith through. The way to live in such a manner is by living a life of holiness. It takes emptying ourselves every day so He can fill us up with Himself. It takes saying 'yes' when it doesn't make sense and going places or doing things we would not normally do. It takes taking on the mindset of Christ so people see/hear Him instead of ourselves. We read in the twentieth chapter of II Chronicles about how King Jehoshaphat asked God to stop the army he didn't think he and his men could beat. Instead of stopping the army God told him to not be afraid or discouraged and that it was not his battle to fight. When the King listened and believed what God said, he had great victory. That will be the result when we listen, believe, and walk in obedience to God. We will have victory over the things that come our way. We may be "surrounded" by what we think is greater than us and it will be until we take on God's strength. The ways of this world that the enemy tries to put upon us can only be fought by having the full armor of God (Ephesians 6) on every day. The enemy is real but my God is more real than him. The battles are tough when fought by the flesh but there is great joy when we have victory through God's empowerment.

Dear Jesus,

I don't know why I had this dream last night but I pray when 'battles' come before me I will be strong in Your empowerment. Use my 'battles' to strengthen my spiritual being. Cleanse me so You can fill me. Empower me so I will have victory over everything the enemy brings my way. I am no longer asking You to stop such 'battles' but instead am asking You to empower me through them. Take my faith deeper through them. Use them to make me stronger in You. There are so many people going through 'battles' and I pray they will realize 'their' battles belong to You. May they have victory so they can have Your sweet joy inside them. Thank You Jesus for being My Battle Taker! Amen.