It’s easy to say: “I just need to turn all my worries over to the Lord.” It’s harder to do.
And sometimes . . . it’s difficult to hear. Sometimes it just sounds like one is abdicating responsibility to deal with a situation.
The final story of Jehoshaphat however has the king saying and doing just that: giving it up to God. Judah, oppressed by the Moabites, Ammonites, and Meunites, believes the situation is hopeless. In fact, Jehoshaphat says as much when, before the Lord, he prays: “we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.”
The momentary silence, coupled with the desperate hearts of a helpless, must have been deafening as “all the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord.”
Jehoshaphat’s father before him, faced with a similar situation, turned his hope toward his own plans without consulting the Lord, and endured failure. Jehoshaphat, on the other hand, helpless as he was, witnessed a miraculous victory that left him and the armies of Judah mere spectators of the power of the Lord.
As hard as it is to “give it up to God,” the most spectacular triumphs await those with the faith to do so.