Text: “The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the LORD” (Proverbs 21:31).
This proverb is talking about preparing for battle. In the early days when horses were involved in battle, preparation of the horse and the warrior took place. Survival was the goal and in order to meet the goal, safety was a very big factor.
Besides the actual worldly or physical preparation that needed to take place, consultation with Almighty God was a number one factor. In this day, without God leading us, any task we endeavor to accomplish will be in vain or ineffective or unsuccessful.
God will certainly do His part, but we in turn must reach out to do our part. God will take care of the impossible, but we must strive to do the possible.
Each day, you and I face some kind of battle. We may be facing some physical issue, some sickness, a family related problem, an addiction of some sort, a work related dilemma or crisis, fear or worry, depression, some setback, or any other of a multitude of troubles.
We are all fighting some kind of battle, and at times we feel as though we are on the losing end. We face situations which seem too big for us to handle. We come up against mountains of difficulties and troubles that cause us to worry and become stressed.
At times, we feel as though we are completely surrounded by problem after problem. How are we to manage? Will we survive? How are we to prepare ourselves to be a victor instead of a victim?
Perhaps you have been given the responsibility of heading a church board, but you fear because you don’t know what is expected of you or you fear because you don’t know the first thing about how to conduct a meeting. The first thing you need to do is talk to God about the responsibility and ask for His guidance and input.
However, that is not all you have to do. You must prepare yourself and do what you can to learn the responsibilities of the position and then inquire or find out how to conduct the meeting. God will do His part if you do your part.
Maybe you have been asked to teach a Sunday school class, but you have never taught before and besides that, you are concerned you may not know enough about the Bible to teach. Are you going to turn down the opportunity?
That would be the easy way out, but in your mind, you know this is not the way. Again, the first thing to do is to consult God through prayer, get His thoughts and feelings, and then use all the power you have to prepare for to win the battle.
In today’s world, there are many who are fighting some addiction. Some are alcoholics who can’t seem to stay away from the drink which is destroying them on the inside and the outside. It is not only destroying them, but it is devastating to their loved ones.
Others are addicted to heroine, cocaine, or marijuana which is not only destroying them physically, mentally and morally, but is leading them to commit sins like stealing, murdering, lying, cheating and so on. Life to these people is getting the next fix regardless of the way it is acquired.
These people know that what they are doing is wrong, but they just can’t seem to get their act together and help themselves. There are people like this in all levels of society. Those people who have money and those who do not have money all travel down the same wide path of self-destruction.
People fail to realize that help is just a prayer away. The Rescuer is waiting to deliver that person from the bondage that has entwined or entangled them in the web of destruction. God does not want any of His children to live a life of misery or to feel lonely because the burden is more than they can bear. He does not want people to feel there is no hope because what they have done has taken them to the bottom of the pit of life.
God does not want them to feel that the bed they have made is the one that they will spend the rest of their life in. He wants them to know that all hope is not lost and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Deliverance is possible if one will only use the measure of faith given him and believe that all things are possible.
Remember the story of the men who picked up the paralytic on his mat and took Him to Jesus because they believed Jesus could deliver this man from his paralysis. When Jesus saw their faith and how they believed He could rescue or deliver this man, He said to the man, “Get up, take up your mat and go home” (Matthew 9:6).
Consider the woman who had a blood disease for twelve years and believed in her heart that if she could just get near Jesus and touch the hem of his robe that she would be healed. She said, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed” (Matthew 9:21). She did touch His cloak and Jesus said to her, “Your faith has healed you” (Matthew 9:22).
The woman was delivered or rescued from a condition that had burdened her for twelve years of her life. She was desperate in finding a way to end this condition. She had spent all she had trying everything earthly possible, but nothing seemed to work. She knew that if she would just reach out, deliverance was a sure thing.
This is the same thing we need to do today. When we are faced with situations or battles in life, we, too, need to reach out and touch the hand of Almighty God through prayer. He will respond to us just as he responded to the woman with the bleeding disease.
Life may not be easy at times, but victory is near. We may be overwhelmed by situations that seem to surround us and pressure us to the point of giving up. We may feel as though we have done all we possible can and no one seems to care about us, but this is not true.
God cares about each one of us. He does not want us to give up. He does not want us to be lonely and afraid. God is just waiting for us to reach out to Him in prayer and ask Him for help and guidance. His arms are outstretched like the arms of an earthly father welcoming home his child.
Jesus said, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22). That is a promise and God does not break a promise. That promise does not guarantee a request or grant a request that would harm anyone concerned. The request must be in accordance with His principles.
The stronger our faith and the stronger our belief, the more likely our prayer requests will be answered because they will be in line with God’s way of thinking. God cares about our wants and desires; our problems and our issues; our good times and our bad times; our first-rate qualities and our second-rate qualities; our ins and outs and everything else about us.
God did not create any thing that was not good or that was useless. He created someone with whom He could communicate, give guidance to, and spend eternity with in His mansion. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).
God created man with unique qualities. These qualities are unique because they are some of the same qualities God possesses. They include the ability to reason, to see, to hear, to speak, to relate to Him and to each other and yet to be different one from another. No two people are the same in that their personalities differ.
God did not make man to be as a puppet on a string, but instead, He gave man a mind and the opportunity to choose or make decisions. Since He created man, God knew that man would make wrong decisions or error in this thinking and actions and had a plan of rescue or deliverance.
God did not want man to live a life of defeat. He did not want him to be a victim of the world, but He did want him to be a victor who would spend eternity with Him in His heavenly kingdom.
With this in mind, God issued each person a measure of faith. Paul said, “….in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Romans 12:3).
Then Jesus said, “….if you have faith as small as a mustard see, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing is impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).
Since God gave each of us a measure of faith, we must put that faith into action by believing that what He tells us in His word is true and “….with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). Sometimes we face battles or situations we feel are impossible to overcome.
As Christians, we know this is simply not true. On our own, some earthly thing might be impossible, but when we consult God and get His input, all things are possible.
When God instructed Noah to build the Ark, there was no water near to float the ark. Since the earth was in such an evil mess, and there seemed to be only eight righteous people who had faith and believed God, a deliverance was about to happen.
Before this deliverance or rescue could take place, Noah and his family had to make some preparation. Noah did not know how to build an ark because he had never done such a thing before. He did not even know where to start, but He listened as God gave instruction and he prepared his thinking to follow these instructions.
In other words, God did not give Noah and his family the constructed ark, but they had to work to acquire the wood and then work to put it together. They put a lot of work and energy into the project. The result was their deliverance or rescue from the great flood. Their faith and belief led them to God’s safe harbor.
The same is true of us today. As we face the battles of life, we are not facing them alone. God knows what we are going through and He is speaking to us. Our part is to listen and heed His Word. We, too, will be saved from the rough waters of life as He rescues us and delivers us to the calm waters of His safe harbor.
When Joseph’s brothers had difficulty with him and sold him into slavery, Joseph faced a great battle. He was thrown into jail through no fault of his own. He was then placed in charge of Egypt which was quite an upgrade to the jail life.
During the famine, Joseph issued food to his brothers who were fighting the battle to survive. During this same time, Joseph was fighting a battle within himself because he so wanted to reveal to his family who he really was, because as you recall, his father thought he was dead.
Although Joseph, his family and all the people in the land were fighting the battle of survival, Joseph kept looking up to Almighty God for guidance and direction. He knew in his heart that at the right time deliverance would take place.
Joseph did not harbor anger and he did not want his family to be angry with themselves for what they had done to him. When He revealed himself to his brothers, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you” (Genesis 45:4-5).
This plan of deliverance was not dictated by Joseph or any other earthly person, but it was under the guidance of God. The brother’s plan was to destroy Joseph, but God’s plan was one of safety, rescue and deliverance.
God uses the same thinking and the same plan for each of us as we face the battles of life. If we will only consult with Him and believe He is working in our best interest, we will be delivered and we will be victors and not victims.
When the Israelites were in captivity in Egypt, the Lord did not forget about them. God spoke to Moses at the burning bush and said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Canaanites, Hittes, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:7, 8, 10).
I don’t believe Moses was expecting God would have him carry through with such a monumental task. I would venture to say that this looked like a very high and large mountain for Moses to conquer. God’s plan was one of deliverance and Moses was His instrument to be used.
The Lord assured Moses this event would take place and eventually Moses believed Him. God convinced Moses that He was still in control by telling Moses to throw down his staff and turning it into a snake.
Then God said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your cloak” (Exodus 4:6). When Moses did this and then took out his hand it was leprous like snow. Then God said, “Put it back into your cloak” (v. 7). Moses did this and when he took it out it was clean flesh.
When God speaks to us, we need to listen. There is no doubt, that as Christians, we believe God’s Word, but there are times we need a little push in His direction. It is a good thing God is understanding and tolerant of our actions.
God sent an angel to protect the people in this mass exodus. The angel of God and the pillar of cloud that traveled in front of Israel’s Army moved to the back between the Israelites and the Egyptian army.
The path of escape given Moses by God led the Israelites to the banks of the Red Sea. Up to this time, the rescue seemed to be going well, but with the sea in front of them, where were they going to go?
Moses listened to what God had previously told him and he was sure the rescue would be successful. The plan of God was to deliver the people from bondage in Egypt. Once God sets His plan into action, He continues forth and the victims become victors.
God works in mysterious ways. He worked a miracle to deliver the Israelites and He works miracles to day to deliver His people. The sea was in front and the Egyptian army in back and the Israelites in-between, a miracle was about to take place.
I am not sure the people believed Moses in all he told them as they moved along, but I am sure Moses had faith in Almighty God and believed the words God spoke to him. When we exercise our faith and believe with all our heart that God is on our side and no battle will ever be lost, we will be delivered.
God said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). We can be assured of this because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
There is no need for us to fret and worry, because God is still on the throne and He is still in control. There is no need for us to get stressed because we are told to cast our burden upon the Lord. There is no need to lose hope because our hope is in the Lord.
There is no need to feel lost because God knows where we are at all times. There is no need for us to face the difficulties of life with a negative attitude because God said, “….if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).
When Moses followed God’s instructions on the bank of the Red Sea and stretched his hand over the sea, “…the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left” (Exodus 14:21-22).
When we face a battle or some circumstance which seems impossible for us to conquer, we are to be like Moses in that we pray (this is preparation and when we get our orders) and then we move in the direction of victory. This is exactly what moves did.
There are times we pray, but then we wait around before moving into action. We have a tendency to procrastinate, stall or postpone. Soon we learn that this is the time to move forth.
We need never panic in any situation in life because God knows what we are facing. He knows how we feel and He knows the way out. It is up to us to move ahead in faith believing deliverance is about to take place.
Conclusion:
Life is a challenge for us. It is up to us to accept these challenges and seek God’s guidance. When we face a mountain, situation, or obstacle we deem bigger than we can handle, deliverance or rescue will take place if:
1. we seek God’s guidance
2. we listen to what He speaks to us from our heart
3. we prepare ourselves for victory
4. we go forth with a positive mindset
5. we exercise our faith in God
6. we believe He is working for our interest
7. we see deliverance on the horizon
8. we see the battle won
9. we see ourselves as victors with Almighty God
10. Lastly, we thank Him and praise Him for guiding, directing, being by our side, and delivering us from the bondage of defeat.
Amen.
