Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 08, Issue 14: Whatever He Sees Needs Doing

I experienced an 'aha' moment from a study by Dr. Kim Kimberling and Pastor Sam Roberts of Life Church that I was doing last week. If we truly invite God to do life with us, he doesn't take a backseat while we fight our battles day after day. He comes alongside us to do what needs doing.

I find my work very expansive and for that reason, I am always asking for God's help every step of the way. But now I realize that even though I do that well, I hadn't fully surrendered my work to God, and that is why I sometimes felt burdened and overwhelmed by it. I was out of town on a short break from work last week, and as I was reflecting, I vividly remembered how my days felt before I left the office. This particular time I was on my desk on phone with my boss working out some computations for her when I had one of my staff come in for me to show her how to do something, and barely a minute after a colleague walked in with his laptop to show me something he wanted me to do for him. Moments before all that, I had hang up on a phone call from another colleague whom I asked to allow me to call her back later as I was trying to concentrate on something at the time. Most of my work days are like that, multiple requests for my attention, lots of demand on me in person and on email, things I have to think through and figure out, always having to provide guidance and advice on a myriad of things, while trying to attend to my to-do list.

I never thought of my work as a battle, but what if it is? We may not be fighting the battles Commander Joab fought in David's army, but I think mine and yours are battles just the same. God is our Commander in Chief and he is not a bystander. He is not sitting on his throne in heaven doing nothing. He will do whatever needs to be done if we invite him.

God is not interested in me only when I am praying and reading the Bible. He wants to be involved in our professional work, our recreation, our rest and fun, our activities at home, and everthing else. God wants to be with us in everything we do, everywhere we are. So, if that's the case, then we can't keep him in the sidelines when we are out battling at work. If we are smart, we will involve him, invite him to do battle with us. Then, because he is our shepherd, he will help us with it, restore us at the end of every day and prepare us for the next battle.

In the book of Second Samuel, David's offer of kindness to the new king of the Ammonites is not taken well. In fact, he suspects David has underlying motives against him and his people. Instead of embracing David's well-meaning men, King Harun instead seizes them and humiliates them by cutting off half of their beards and cutting their robes halfway up their buttocks. This, of course, meant war when word got to David.

King David dispatched Joab with his strongest fighters in full force to fight the Ammonites, who had now hired Aramean soldiers to fight with them. The Ammonites arranged themselves in battle formation at the city gate, while the Arameans took up a position out in the open fields. The Bible says that when Joab saw that he had two fronts to fight, before and behind, he took his best pick of Israel and deployed them to confront the Arameans. The rest of the army he put under the command of Abishai, his brother, and deployed them to confront the Ammonites.

What caught my attention and got me thinking about how to handle my own battles is what Joab said after deploying his troops. He said to Abishai, "If the Arameans are too much for me, you help me. And if the Ammonites prove too much for you, I,ll come and help you. Courage! We'll fight with might and maim for our people and for the cities of our God. And God will do whatever he sees needs doing!"

God will do whatever he sees needs doing? Wow! And guess what happened in this case. As Joab's and Abishai's men approached the enemy lines, both the Arameans and Ammonites ran off in full retreat from Israel's army. Both enemies down. The war was over even before it started! Talk about God doing whatever he sees needs doing!

By acknowledging that all they could do is the best they know how, and that God would take care of what they can't do, Joab invited God to come do battle with him, and do what only God could do. And God fought for them, released immense fear into the enemy troops that caused them to flee before Joab's troops.

I think when we find our work at the office, at home, or anywhere else overwhelming, it's because we are going about it the wrong way, or we are trying to do what only God can do. Why not surrender your load to God, commit to do your best while asking God to do what he sees needs doing? That's my resolution going forward. I am inviting God to do battle with me day after day. I hope you get the revelation too and start to do life differently.

God has all the answers we lack. Our strength is not in ourselves but in him. When the burden seems bigger than the mission, we shouldn't be afraid to admit that we can't do it, because the truth is we really can't, but God can. God will equip us and fight alongside us. With him, we will win the battles of our lives because he will do whatever he sees needs doing.

I give all the credit to Dr. Kim Kimberling and Pastor Sam Roberts of Life Church for the inspiration for this article.

For His Glory,

Lillian Chebosi