The Battle Belongs…

This weekend, the kids, John and I, and dear friends, piled into our cars and took a short road trip to see a Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham concert. To be honest, I couldn’t wait to worship alongside my kids and heart-deep friends… but I also was desperately hoping for one of those, Holy Spirit washes over everything, mountain-top experiences alongside thousands but feeling like it’s just you and God that reminds you of what matters and helps to prioritize the chaos.

He came through.

You see… right now, we have some indecision ahead relating to careers, kids’ school choices (and life choices if we’re super honest… parenting these soon-to-be-teens is something new, exciting and sometimes, terrifying!), and beyond that, even more. We have friends facing REALLY hard things… unknown medical situations, true and deep loss, and even a family friend who endured an accident…. one he has yet to wake up from… the pain his family is experiencing is deep and our hearts are with them every single day.

In our home, taking it beyond “hardships,” we’ve turned off the news. The politics have been hard. The division in our world and our country feels deep, jarring and even scarring. We’ve committed to picking the causes we feel God has placed on our hearts and reaching out to those around us to build relationships over picking political podiums.

But the hard is real. It’s palpable… and we KNOW we’re not alone in that.

It was with these things on our hearts that we walked into the arena in Reading, PA… waiting to hear from God (and knowing he’d speak through his people).

What we didn’t expect – even knowing the songs we’d hear by heart – was an Old Testament story that Phil Wickham shared that felt so relevant to where we all are today… one that – for me at least – had been buried in the archives somewhere far behind the Biblical greats – the Davids, the Daniels, the travels and exhortations of Paul…and it’s sad… because in this story, the ONLY main player that anyone could focus on is God himself.

Wickham recounted the story in 2 Chronicles 20, where the people of Judah faced almost certain doom as their enemy armies combined around them in massive force… with the hope of victory altogether erased. In this moment of hopelessness, however, King Jehoshaphat chose hope anyway. He sent the priests and worshippers to the front line and they entered the battle weaponless (in terms of physical weapons), and sang praises to God.

With encouragement from spirit-filled men of God, the following scene plays out:

¹⁷ You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”

¹⁸ Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. ¹⁹ And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.

²⁰ And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” ²¹ And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say,

“Give thanks to the Lord,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.”

They chose to believe what was laid before them. And in the face of worldly defeat, they chose to give thanks and to remember God’s enduring, steadfast love.

And before their eyes…. the armies of their enemies fought against each other and destroyed each other instead of turning on Judah at all. The people of Judah were delivered in a way that only God could orchestrate.

It was with this spirit that we – as a congregation of people from all walks of life from all over the place raised hands high in the air and sang out the song, “Battle Belongs,” often without needing the leading from Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham on stage at all:

So when I fight, I’ll fight on my knees
With my hands lifted high
Oh God, the battle belongs to You
And every fear I lay at Your feet
I’ll sing through the night
Oh God, the battle belongs to You

For me – it hit deep.

I shared on social media afterward that sometimes I question God’s choice to allow me to be a fighter. I see it in my kids and I get so frustrated. When something isn’t just. When someone I love is wronged. When I see the things that we are facing down together right now, the urge to resort to anger, the urge to fight back is REAL. Sometimes it’s all I can focus on… it fills everything and clouds truth completely at times.

But this story – of the God who is still our God today, of a God who still moves this way today – brought me back to the reminder that these battles? They aren’t mine. They never were meant to be.

God’s plan, his truth… they endure forever.

We don’t know the outcome. We don’t know if those we love will be healed in this life. We don’t know how certain circumstances will be resolved. We don’t know why “settled” has never been a situation we’ve found ourselves in. We don’t know the why’s. We don’t know the “how’s.” But we DO know the who.

I’m grateful for the opportunity we had to worship. I’m grateful for glimpses of God that we can have in circumstances like that, and in every day moments when peace washes over that makes no sense whatsoever. I’m grateful for a God who hears and knows us… and fights on our behalf.

Can you lean into him today? Can you lean into the promises in the hard? Can you give the battle to him and let him carry the heaviness? Friend, you were never meant to: look up today.