Thine Strength or mine ?

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. To show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.””

II Chronicles 16 : 9 (New King James Version)

For a little background concerning this verse , lets turn our Bibles to chapter 14 and read on from there….King Asa (King of Judah) did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord…He removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places,… he broke all their sacred pillars…

One day however Zerah the Ethiopian came out against him with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots !! Now Asa had only an army with three hundred thousand men from Judah and two hundred and eighty thousand men from Benjamin. In other words his army was only half the size when compared to the army coming against him. Ever had problems rise up against you that were more than you could ever handle ??
We read in Chapter 14 and verse 11 , “And Asa cried out to the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O LORD our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!””

I want us to reflect on this verse for a second…
· “LORD, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power

We need to understand this … Our God is above every circumstance and every situation … He is above every logical solution !! It does not matter what we see here physically … We need to have our eyes set on Him !!

· help us, O LORD our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude
What did the people of Judah do ? They rested in Him ! They did not just pray and then quickly go and try and figure out a solution or an escape route or a Plan B ! No … They said “we rest on You” and what else ? They declared that they would go out against the multitude in whose name ? in His name !

· O LORD, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!”

They didn’t just say “You are our God” and go about doing what they wanted … No no no they professed what they believed ! How many of us say “Lord You are my God“ but live nothing like it ? They walked in faith and prayed. They knew God was all able and He would never let those who trust in Him be put to shame.

As we keep reading we see that the Lord struck the Ethiopians and they fled ! Now when we come to chapter 16 we see that Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah. And what did Asa do ? We read in Chapter 16 and verse 2 that he brought silver and gold from the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house and sent them to Ben-Hadad king of Syria . Asa broke up the treaty between the king of Syria and the king of Israel and formed one with the king of Syria. Logical ? Yes . God’s will ? No ! He never sought the Lord !! Asa decided he would do the best logical thing ! He had tasted and seen how good God is and he had seen the victory that God had given him but yet he did not seek the the Lord ! He relied on his own wisdom and not God’s strength.God who defeated the Ethiopian’s army could have easily given him victory . But Asa decided to go with his own wisdom and strength this time.

Hanani the seer came to king Asa and said ““Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the LORD your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand.For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.””

God would have given him the army of the king of Syria… he would have defeated them … What a turn of events !

So many many many times we are like Asa… We rely on Him when we have nothing .. and we see the hand of God in our lives …. But as soon as certain things start taking shape, then we begin to make decisions on our own ! I pray that the Lord will forgive our foolishness and I pray that we will seek the Lord and rely on Him and Him alone.

Verse 9 says that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is what ? Loyal to Him !

The Lord will always always show Himself strong … however are we loyal to Him ? Who do we rely on ? Him or our wisdom ?

When Asa heard from the Lord he did not repent for his folly… instead he had Hanani put in prison !! At the end Asa became diseased in his feet and his malady was severe… yet yet yet he did not seek the Lord but sought the physicians …. And eventually he died. Isn’t that sad ?

What’s even worse is some of us who don’t recognize that we are in the same state of Asa ! I pray that we will set ourselves right in the sight of the Lord and rely on Him completely in everything and for everything.

God Bless


Testimony : I praise and thank God that we have completed 100 mailers till today by God’s grace. As long as we keep relying on God He does such wonderful things. When His word goes forth it accomplishes things ! Amen. Do continue to keep this ministry in your prayers. God is blessing this ministry to cause the birth of L.I.G.H.T. Ministries (Labourers In God’s Harvest Together). I pray that we will continue to grow in the Lord together and may His light shine forth brightly from within us that people around us may glorify our Father.