Stop Trying, Start Trusting

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."

Hebrews 11:1

During a corporate prayer meeting in church some weeks ago, my Senior Pastor turned from his seat in front of me and whispered to me. "I have a word from the Lord for you," he said, "stop trying and start trusting."

It was indeed a word from Abba Father as I have been seeking Him recently. He led me through another level of training as I dealt with some difficulties imposed by one of the government department regulating the reconstruction of my house. The objections were clearly unreasonable, so much so that even a senior person in the coordinating department told us so. He also taught us how to submit an appeal.

To deal with the matter, I immediately activated my human intelligence (so I thought I had), and listed out all the issues, including laws and by-laws to prove that the department concerned was being unreasonable. I leaned on my own understanding and intellect.

Instead of getting what I thought I could get by proper reasoning, I dug a deeper hole for myself. Needless to say, my "enemies" triumphed over me with more unreasonable objections.

Then the word of the Lord rang out in my spirit, "Stop trying, start trusting!"

I remembered how God delivered Joshua from the combined forces of the allied northern kingdoms (Joshua 11 NIV). The bible records that, "They came out with all their troops and a large number of horses and chariots—a huge army, as numerous as the sand on the seashore." (Joshua 11:4) Israel was surely out numbered in men and horses, they were out "chariot-ed" and overwhelmed. 

But God was on their side. He had promised Israel the promised land and He will deliver!

"The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, because by this time tomorrow I will hand all of them, slain, over to Israel. You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.”" 

Joshua 11:6 NIV

Joshua simply trusted God. He trusted that the battle belonged to the Lord. God delivered as promised and all the enemies were slain.

Continuing with my own situation, I integrated this theology with my prayer to the Lord. I told the Lord that since He has told me to stop trying with my human means and to start trusting Him, I will. I commit the situation to Him and declared that I will wait upon Him and His intervention. 

Right on that day after I prayed, my project team received a call from the coordinating department at 5.50pm (no coincidence but a divine intervention) to arrange for a meeting to resolve the matter.

Hallelujah! 

However, Satan immediately went on the offensive. He appealed to my old man to "start preparing" for the meeting by thinking of all the possible arguments to overcome their objections. Then the Lord reminded me, "Stop trying, start trusting!, I will deliver the enemies to you. The battle belongs to Me." 

Hallelujah again! 

My meeting is scheduled for this coming Wednesday. I want to publicly declare my trust in the Lord to deliver the "enemies" to me. I want to declare that I trust Him in this battle. 

Indeed, the battle belongs to the Lord. 

God bless.

Steven