The Power of Weakness.....

I love the Old Testament. There are so many great stories in there that we always seem to miss or look past. In church today, all we talk about is always Jesus and Paul's letters (that's not a bad thing, but my point is that we are missing out on some great stuff in the OT)

But quite possibly my favorite passage of scripture is in 2 Chronicles 20 with Jehoshaphat. Setting up the story.  Jehoshaphat is a king and he is about to be attacked from 2 different armies. With his army he does not stand a chance against one army, much less both. Once he found out he was about to be attacked and could not win, there becomes mass panic. People are freaking out, they keep shouting to the king, "What do we do!? How can we beat this army?! Can you protect us?!" There is shouting, panic, and confusing running throughout Judah.  Everyone is looking toward Jehoshaphat to answer these questions; their lives are at stake. 

So, the king, the one who is supposed to have all the answers, gets up. But instead of shouting out orders and commands to the people on what to do, he looks at them and tells them, "I don't know what to do, but I know who has the answers."

Imagine if you were one of the people there when he said that. A king. The guy who should be ready for everything and a guy of complete and total power over everything, says, "I don't know what to do" The panic level must have went through the roof then! What do you do when your leader does not know the answers or what to do?

But Jehoshaphat, is all his wisdom, goes prays, and  in this prayer is my favorite verse in the bible. He says at the end of his prayer, "We don't know what to do, but our eyes are on you" (2 Chronicles 20:12)

Then right after the prayer he "bows his head with his face to the ground.......worshiping the LORD" (2 Chronicles 20:18)

The next day, the people wake up and get ready for battle. They put on their armor, grab their swords and get ready for a battle that they know they will lose. Their king doesn't even know what to do. The army marches into the battle field expecting to see two massive armies ready to kill all of them. But to their amazement, they see the armies, but the two armies have fought each other and destroyed themselves.

God had put the armies against each other and protected Judah. Why? Not because he was looking for something fun to do; but because Jehoshaphat, the king, knew that he was weak and that God is strong. He was not afraid to admit that he had absolutely no power that wasn't given to him from God.

I love this!

I consider myself a leader, and teacher, but all of my abilities are not of my own doing. While we are weak, God is strong. It's okay not to always have all the answers. Because we have contact with the person who does! So my point here is that any leaders who read this, you show your power and leadership qualities when you admit weakness to God. When you submit yourself to God's will and not your own. Also, for people who are stressed out with so much going on, you can't do it all on your own. Admit weakness and ask the one who knows you better than yourself the answers. There is so much power in our weakness.