The NIV 365 Day Devotional
When You Don’t Know What to Do
My husband and I are both fix-it people. When faced with problems, we immediately go into crisis intervention mode. We also tend to consider depending on God as a last resort rather than instinctively turning to him first.
However, sometimes not even our best efforts to fix things can change our circumstances. That’s when we’ve learned that if we belong to God, our lives are not our own, and our battles aren’t really ours, but his.
One situation that crystallized this lesson was when I learned that I was pregnant with our youngest daughter, and two weeks later my husband was laid off from his job. We had no health insurance, no savings, no income and no job prospects. We were powerless to fix this condition ourselves.
I remember thinking that either (1) God didn’t exist and everything was spinning out of control, or (2) God not only existed but was in complete control and would take care of all of our needs. We might have to struggle, but he would be with us.
Still, as the baby inside of me grew and the bills piled up and my husband couldn’t find a job, we were afraid.
Second Chronicles describes a time when the Israelites were afraid. A vast army had assembled to attack them. Powerless to defend themselves, they turned to the Lord for help. With King Jehoshaphat as their leader, they prayed, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (2 Chronicles 20:12).
Through a Levite named Jahaziel, the Spirit of the Lord told them, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s” (verse 15). The following day God set ambushes against the enemy armies and defeated them for the Israelites.
Our situation wasn’t a battle against an army, but it was a battle nonetheless. We fought to trust God and to believe that he was able and willing to do more for us than we could ever dream or imagine or do for ourselves.
Space prohibits me from telling all that God did, but during that entire year of my husband’s unemployment, through various odd jobs and the generosity of our church family, all of our bills were paid, including the baby’s delivery cost.
More important, God used the hardships we went through as a strong testimony to our neighbors and friends, as well as to us. As we said repeatedly, “God did it.” We realized that not only was the battle his but so, too, was the victory.
Taken from the NIV Couple’s Devotional Bible.