It’s been quite some time since I blogged. I realized that I have been waiting to get out of the “valley” so I could tell you all about it in part two. But here’s the deal, I’m still there and likely, you might be also. So what can we do? I shared last time about the story of King Jehoshaphat and and all the families of Israel crying out to God in prayer to save them when they were up against a mighty army. I’m going to share the second part of that story today.
2 Chronicles 20:15 has the Lord’s response to their desperate cry. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel and he said, “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’”
Wow! “The battle is not yours, but God’s.” What a promise! And then followed by, “Stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you.” Stand. It doesn’t say, “Fight hard!” or “Do your best!” No, just stand and see the deliverance.
After hearing this word from the Lord, King Jehoshaphat bowed low with his face to the ground . He and all the people worshiped the Lord. As they went out to battle, the king stopped to encourage them saying, “Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be able to stand firm.” (vs.20) He then appointed singers to walk ahead of the army to sing to the Lord and praise Him for His holy splendor. They sang, “Give thanks to the Lord; for his faithful love endures forever!”
I love that they worshiped God and sang His praises prior to the victory. This is the part that really encouraged me. They were given a promise and they held on to it in faith. They didn’t just hope it was true. They believed it was true and sang on the way into battle. King Jehoshaphat was so sure God would keep his promise that he led them into battle with the singers.
What does that mean to me? It means that I need to believe God will carry me through this battle, grief, COVID, etc. so much so that I can sing to Him EVEN before the victory. It means choosing to believe by standing firm in faith and worshiping even when I don’t understand His plan, when I don’t know what my future will look like, or how He will deliver me. That’s faith in action.
And here’s what I have learned when I choose to sing, when what I feel like doing is crying, worrying, or complaining, God’s spirit comes in and comforts me. My negative emotions are replaced with peace and I am comforted by Him. I can’t explain it. It’s something you can only experience if you will trust Him in your own valley of pain. And in doing this, God turns your valley into one of blessing instead. Listen to what happened at the end of this story.
“At the very moment they began to sing and give praise, the Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to start fighting among themselves. The armies of Moab and Ammon turned against their allies from Mount Seir and killed every one of them. After they had destroyed the army of Seir, they began attacking each other. So when the army of Judah arrived at the lookout point in the wilderness, all they saw were dead bodies lying on the ground as far as they could see. Not a single one of the enemy had escaped.
King Jehoshaphat and his men went out to gather the plunder. They found vast amounts of equipment, clothing, and other valuables—more than they could carry. There was so much plunder that it took them three days just to collect it all! On the fourth day they gathered in the Valley of Blessing, which got its name that day because the people praised and thanked the Lord there. It is still called the Valley of Blessing today.” (2 Chron. 20:22-25)
So how do you stand firm and worship? I’ll tell you what has helped me since Craig passed away. Over the past 25 months, I have been making playlists on my phone that encourage me through the different seasons. I have one called Fight Songs that is filled with songs that pump me up when I feel like quitting. I have another one I made that first Christmas without Craig, that had 8 songs which carried me through. I listened to those instead of Christmas music (which was way too painful and irrelevant that year.) I have another called 2020 Hope, which I turn on every morning as I got ready for the day. These songs literally infused hope and strength into me. And still do, every day! I’ll share some screen shots with you here to get you started on your own playlists if you need some inspiration.
How do I find them? I have an Apple phone and Apple makes different playlists. There is one called Rise Up (Apple Christian) which I downloaded. What is cool about this, is that as new songs are released they dump them into the list, so I am often hearing a brand new song. If I like it, I can then save it to one of my own playlists. Seriously, my Apple music subscription has been a great value for my money. If you don’t have Apple music, there are similar playlists on Pandora or Amazon/Alexa or whatever music system you have. They have made finding worship songs much easier for us these days. Of course, you could also find a great worship station on the radio to listen to at home or in the car. Regardless of how you find the music, there is still a choice to listen, to worship, to believe His promises and keep pressing on in the valley. I would encourage you to try infusing some worship into your life for a month and see if it changes how you feel. I believe God will meet you there, encourage you to stand strong in your faith and enable you to keep trusting Him in whatever valley you may be in right now.
Here’s a great song video to get you pumped up!