Heart position...

    Last week I looked at the story of king Jehoshaphat and the combined army that came against him and his people, Judah. His choice to keep his eyes on his God and to worship worked in their favour.
    However, there was one word that caught my attention and it is found in verse 17 (NKJV): “You will not need to fight in this battle. POSITION yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you…” That one word “position” got my attention and I began to think about it. One version (ESV)  states: “hold your position.” Another translation (KJV) says, “set yourselves…” The dictionary defines “position” as to put or arrange (someone or something) in a particular place or way. 
    At one point I found it contradictory that God would, on the one hand, tell His people that they would not need to fight in this battle but then tell them to position themselves. It seemed to me that He was telling them to get ready for battle although they were not going to fight! Yet, one look at the words which come right after makes it a bit clearer: “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you…” God was not calling them to fight but to get ready to see what He would do.
    While they waited, they worshiped and they kept their focus on their God who could do what they could not do. Their enemies may have been positioning themselves to fight against them but they were positioning themselves to let God fight for them. 
    This, however, was not just a physical positioning that God was calling them to. It was rather a position of the heart. God wanted their hearts to be in the right place to receive the good He had in store for them. Remember, prior to this event, their hearts were far from their God and king Jehoshaphat and his father, Asa, had gone to great lengths to turn their hearts back to the Lord their God. Imagine if this had happened during that backslidden time. They might not have turned to the Lord their God for help and would have tried to fight on their own. They might even have enlisted the help of other nations to fight with them … and would have been defeated!
    We too must “position” ourselves when challenges come our way. It’s not just about what we do when we face our battles but about the position of our heart when overwhelming challenges come our way. It’s about having a heart of trust when it seems everything is falling apart. It’s about having a heart of obedience to do whatever God tells us to do even when it doesn’t make sense. I am reminded of the children of Israel when faced with the Red Sea in front of them and their enemies, the Egyptians, behind them (Exodus 14:8-15). They had to choose to trust God and His servant Moses and to obey them when it did not make sense. God told them to go forward (v.15b). That did not make sense when the Red Sea was blocking their path. No one had even seen a large body of water part before, but they had to trust God when capture by their enemies looked imminent. They had to obey His Word to go forward even when there was no way they could move the body of water in front of them.
    Sometimes, like the Israelites, we too may feel trapped and we may feel as if there is no way out. But God is concerned about the position of our heart. Will we trust Him when things seem hopeless; will we obey His instructions even though it doesn’t make sense? When He tells us to worship, will we worship or will we grumble? When He instructs us to let it go, will we obey or will we hold on as we desperately try to work it out on our own?
    We can accomplish a lot by our actions; but a lot more can be done when our heart is rightly positioned in God. Trust that He knows what is best; trust that He will get the job done even better than what we can accomplish in our own strength.
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. Above all else, God wants our hearts; He wants us to trust Him, to obey Him. He will never lead us astray and He knows how to bring the best out of every challenge that comes our way.
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