Confronting the Challenges We Face

The value of filling your mind with the grandeur of God is that everything else finds its proper place. I was thinking about this when I read the story of King Asa in 2 Chronicles 14-16. Asa found himself in a battle where he was completely outnumbered. If he had only responded to the threatening situation based on what he could see, he would have been defeated even before he went to battle. Instead, Asa reacted by crying out to the Lord: “Lord, there is no one besides You to help the mighty and those without strength. Help us, Lord our God, for we depend on You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude. Lord, You are our God. Do not let a mere mortal hinder You” (2 Chronicles 14:11).

Asa didn’t focus on the strength of his enemies, he focused on the strength of his God. God showed up and fought the battle and gave Asa a mighty victory. The Spirit of God spoke through a prophet to Asa and told him: “The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you abandoned Him, He will abandon you” (2 Chronicles 15:2). These words encouraged Asa and he began to remove all the idols from the land and to separate himself from influences that would separate him from God.

Asa enjoyed the blessing of peace that came when he trusted God. However, when Israel’s King Baasha went to war against him, he went into the Lord’s temple for something other than prayer. This time he went into the temple and brought out the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Lord to make a treaty with Aram’s King Ben-hadad. He was no longer seeking help from God; instead, his focus was on human help.

God again spoke to Asa through a prophet. This time He rebuked Asa for depending on a human king and not on the Lord his God. He reminded him of his past victory and how, when he had depended on the Lord, the Lord had given him victory. Then the prophet said, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those whose hearts are completely His” (2 Chronicles 16:9). However, Asa’s mind was no longer filled with the grandeur of God and everything had lost its proper place.

The story of King Asa is not just a history lesson. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). We are living in a time of great difficulty. We are being confronted with the challenges that are very much like the challenges of King Asa. I believe that how we respond will be determined by how we see our God.