Facing Your Enemies

2 Chronicles 20

vs 17) Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out and face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.

We all have enemies. Whether they're people or things. The other night, in church, we were talking about identifying your enemies which is pretty funny because now I want to talk about facing them.
For all of us, Satan is our enemy. But there are more: business, greed, confusion, doubt and so on. It has been defined as something having destructive or injurious effects. In other words, it can hurt us. Basically, they stop us from doing things.

In this story today, Jehoshaphat is king and once again, a vast army has marched out against them. In this case, the army represents the enemies. Pretty straight forward. They (the tribe of Judah) call upon God because they know that can do this by themselves.

v6) "O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.

God hears their prayer and this is what he says.

vs 15) "Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's.

vs 17) You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.' "

He says, 'Look, don't worry. I'll fight this, just go, face your enemies and I will fight for you.

It still took faith for Judah to march down and face their enemies. It's not easy stuff. But they trusted God. They went down singing praises to God. Talk about making an entrance! When they got there, they oly found dead people. Kind of gross but their enemies are gone! In verse 23 it said they (the enemies) killed each other.

So Judah praised God even more. (vs 7)

Alrighty, there's the story. Now it's our turn. How can a really old story help us?

As I said before, we all have our enemies. Whether it's doubt, busyness or Satan. They all stop us from completely enjoying God and doing what he wants. These are pretty hard to face.

But God tells us to face them. We can't keep running. But He'll help us eliminate them. If Satan's starting to overpower you, say some verses or sing some songs. Satan hates it. He can not stand to hear God being praised. If fear's getting in the way, talk to God. He's bigger than everything. He wants to help.

Judah stood up and faced a massive amount of enemies with the right attitude and God saved them.

He can help us too!