Stuck!

 

“You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you.”

—2 Chronicles 20:17

Judah was stuck! They didn’t know which way to turn. Their enemies were coming against them.¹ What to do?

The king proclaimed a fast and the people together sought the Lord for His help. God gave Jahaziel, one of the Levites, God’s message for them to “stand firm and see the deliverance of the Lord.” Their enemies ended up destroying each other. As a result, God’s people could only lift their voices in praise to Him.

I was stuck! That spring day so many years ago, I ran across the field in my tall barn boots and before I knew it, I had sunk too far into the mud to get out. I yelled for my father and he came and quickly pulled me out of my boots to rescue me.

Plenty of times in life we get stuck. We don’t know which way to go. The way we thought the Lord was leading us turns out to be a dead end. We try to step this way and that. But, we simply have no power to move.

I knew, standing there in the mud on that long-ago day, that my father would come to help me. He heard my cry. Likewise, our Heavenly Father sees us and hears us when we call out to Him in our distress. He knows the way to safety before we do. We can trust Him to help us out of our predicament and lead us onto the right pathway.

We learn the lesson of waiting patiently for our God when we have no place to go but to Him. We pray and stand still. And, as stated in Psalm 40:1-3, He will come:

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

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1 According to 2 Chronicles 20:2, their enemies consisted of a vast army.