When You Are Surrounded...Seek God

When Jehoshaphat was given the news that three nations had combined their armies to destroy him and his people, the Bible says he was terrified. He knew he was in over his head. In verse 12 Jehoshaphat prayed to God: “We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us. We do not know what to do...”

Have you ever felt this way? Have you ever been at a place where you knew you were in over your head? That's where Jehoshaphat was as he faced this attack from multiple enemies. But through this event, he learned that when you are surrounded by enemies, you are in a prime position to experience God's miracle-working power. You are in a place to witness deliverance. And if we can learn the same lessons that he learned, we can experience the same deliverance that Jehoshaphat experienced.

Through this series, we are going to see three things that Jehoshaphat did to experience the deliverance of the Lord. We are going to focus this week on the first thing he did. The Scriptures teach that Jehoshaphat began to seek the Lord. Verse 3 says, “Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news and begged the Lord for guidance.” The King James Version says “Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord...” The first lesson that Jehoshaphat learned was that when you find yourself surrounded by enemies, the first thing you should do is seek the Lord.

The remainder of this week we are going to look at an overarching principle that reshaped Jehoshaphat's fear. And then we will discover five steps he took to seek God. And if we will follow them, we may discover, that like Jehoshaphat, we too can "...can cry out to you to save us, and you will hear us and rescue us."  (2 Chronicles 20:9)