VICTORY IS ON THE HORIZON

2 Chronicles 14:11 Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God, "O Lord, no one but You can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in You alone."

King Asa of Judah was being invaded by an army of 1,000,000 Ethiopians and he was outnumbered by 2 to 1 but although the odds were hugely against him he knew what to do. He cried out to the Lord for His help but he didn't do it with a 'poor old me' attitude. No, his focus wasn't on his own inadequacy but on God's power and the fact that He alone could defeat the mighty. He declared the power and mightiness of God, not his own weakness.

He knew that whatever enemy he faced he had to do it in the name of his mighty God. We too have been given the name of Jesus, the name above all names and it's in His mighty name we cry out to God for help against any enemy that attacks us and tell it to bow the knee and to flee before us.

v.12 So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians, in the presence of Asa and the army of Judah, and the enemy fled....They were destroyed by the Lord and His army...

Their trust wasn't in their own army or cleverness or their own plan. Their whole trust was in the Lord, they knew they couldn't face their enemies on their own, but what a resounding victory God gave them. What a shout of 'Woohoo' there must have been!

For those of us who are waiting on God I believe He's telling us there is a 'woohoo' shout of victory for us on the horizon because we're trusting in our God and Him alone.  We can know the victory is ours because God says "He always causes us to triumph in Jesus." Thank You Lord.

SEE THE FUNNY SIDE!

Proverbs 17:22 A merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.

Daft things happen sometimes don't they and you just have to scratch your head and laugh at life's silly happenings. 

One day last week I was on the phone to my sister when the door bell rang so Chris answered the door and three children were standing there asking him to buy some sweets they were selling for 20p. How weird is that? I'd never seen them before in my life! ...... Meanwhile our house smoke alarm suddenly went off with it's siren blaring out. I rushed to the kitchen only to discover I'd burnt a pan of hard boiled eggs completely dry (because I forgot all about them) and the fumes were affecting the alarm. So there I am waving a towel frantically at the smoke alarm trying to waft the fumes so it would stop, the three children are all standing gawping through the open door at this crazy woman wielding a towel in the air and they have their fingers in their ears, pulling faces because it was so loud! My sister is still on the phone listening to the hullabaloo, the siren stops and we all relax ........ then it started up again and we had to repeat the whole process again!........  Meanwhile Chris had gone to find 20p.! 

Honestly, you couldn't have written a comedy script any better and that's my point. It's good to learn to laugh at ourselves and our circumstances sometimes, because if we don't we'll end up crying. I was recounting the whole episode to a friend on the phone a few minutes later and I just saw the funny side of it and we laughed and laughed, it did us so much good. She actually said it was better than medicine! (Oh and the good news is I saved the pan and the children got their 20p.!!)

I know life is serious sometimes but I have to remind myself to just lighten up a bit and see the funny side of things, life would be much more bearable, don't you think? 

Our verse today encourages us to have a merry heart, a heart that sees the ridiculous, that makes us laugh, because God says it will do us good like a medicine. I think I like that medicine a lot better than the sort the doctors give us sometimes and so did my friend! 

God gave us a sense of humour for a reason - we need it! Don't forget this verse comes from Proverbs, God's book of wisdom. It's wise to laugh! Apparently scientists tells us that laughter releases all sorts of healing endorphins as well, so let's try laughing more! 

And just in case life gets a bit fraught and strained today, try and stop for a minute, if you can, to see the funny side of things and laugh, it might surprise you how it diffuses the situation, and how much better you feel.😊