What Shall We Do?

Good News – May 2010 – Grace & Truth Magazine

What Shall We Do?

“When the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’ So he answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’” – 2 Kings 6:15-16 NKJV

Have you ever been in a predicament where you’ve said, “I’ve done everything I can. Now I guess I’ll just have to trust the Lord!” I think most of us have said that at some time, or at least thought it. But obviously, we should have trusted the Lord before we came to the end of our own resources.

I think the reason we don’t trust the Lord until we’ve come to an end of ourselves is because most of us don’t like to depend on others, and because sometimes we’re not sure the Lord is going to give us the results that we want.

People generally don’t trust in Jesus for salvation until they’ve found out that they can’t save themselves. Most of us try everything else before resting in the promise that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). We think that if we believe right, pray right, confess right, do right we’ll be saved. We have to find out that no matter how much we do, we can’t save ourselves. We need to do one of the hardest things any of us has ever done – put our complete trust in someone besides ourselves.

If we don't come to this realization, we’ll always think that we did something to deserve salvation. But God wants us to depend wholly on His Son, not just partly. He wants Him to receive all the credit for saving us, not just part of it. I’ve seen people struggle with this before they give up and just thankfully trust in the Lord. And when they do, they always find Him truly trustworthy.

After we are saved, we have God for us (Rom. 8:31), the Holy Spirit in us (Eph. 1:13), and angels serving us (Heb. 1:14). With heaven on our side, why do we so often ask the question that the servant asked of Elisha, “What shall we do?” Elisha had the Lord open the servant’s eyes to see a heavenly army protecting them. We know that there are a lot of things happening in our lives that we can’t see. Ephesians 6:12 tells us clearly that we’re battling unseen forces. We’re not big enough to win this battle, but the Lord is.

We need to learn to trust Him. Instead of saying, “God helps those who help themselves” we need to learn that God fights the battles of those who trust Him because they’ve learned that they cannot trust themselves. We can trust the Lord, because “God is faithful” (1 Cor. 1:9).

First Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation (test or trial) has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted (tested) beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

This verse convinces me that when we give the Lord control, He’ll give us the victory. We will not be overcome by the enemy. My prayer is that the Lord will open your eyes to see the Savior God has provided for us. We can tell you more.

By Bruce Collins