This blog post I wrote 4 years ago today popped up on my Facebook feed this morning. It came at a perfect time to remind me again how to fight my battles. We are facing a battle in our business right now that I have no control over. But God is in control.
4/19/2019: It’s Good Friday. A day to remember, to reflect.
And from now on FIGS AND RAISINS will be a part of my Good Friday reflection. Curious? Read on. This is a story of how God personally touched me just this very morning.
I woke up with an overwhelming urge to open my Bible and read the next page in my journaling Bible. But I had so much to do that I pushed that urge aside. My carnal needs for food became my first focus. I open the fridge and saw the oatmeal kit that was a breakfast add-on to my recent order with my new love, Gobble, a food delivery service. OATMEAL WITH DRIED FIGS AND BALSAMIC DRIZZLE. I can’t remember the last time I had figs, but I sure do love Fig Newtons, so this sounded way better than my only other option of toast and a chocolate protein shake which is what I’ve eaten every other morning this week. I don’t love to see posts constantly about what people had for a meal that day but this has a point, I promise.
The oatmeal with figs, golden raisins, pine nuts, and maple butter topped with a balsamic glaze was delicious. I go up to my office to start working, but that urge to read my Bible just wouldn’t let go. So I glance at the clock and say “Yes, Lord. I’ll fit in one page.”
Today’s page was the entire chapter of 1 Chronicles 12. This is where God is preparing an army to defeat Saul and finally put David on the throne as King of Israel. I came to verse 22 “For from that day men came to David to help him, until there was a great army, like an army of God.” Men coming TO David. David was putting together his army with the people that he knew about. But he couldn’t have expected that God was working to change the hearts and minds of over 340,000 other warrior men to converge at a single location at a single moment in time in the city of Hebron “with a whole heart to make David king over all of Israel”. I started getting emotional as I read the numbers. 6800 from Judah, 7100 Simeonites, 4600 Levites, 3700 from the house of Aaron. And even 3000 of Saul’s own kin – family of the sitting king was changing sides to come fight for David! Not just a few. 3000 of them. Wrap your head around that. 20800, 18000, 50000, 1000, 37000, 28,600, 40000, 120000!!
And not just the men, but their family and many others came to supply food and feed all these men. Verse 40 says, “And also their relatives from as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, came bringing food on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on oxen, abundant provisions of flour, cakes of figs, clusters of raisins, and wine and oil, oxen and sheep, for there was joy in Israel.” FIGS AND RAISINS. Are you kidding me? This is like God tapping me on the shoulder and saying “I am here, I know everything you are going through down to what you are going to make for breakfast. I knew you would be reading this very page this very day, and I want to get your attention.”
God, you got my attention all right.
As I was reading about God putting together an army to fight the battle for David, I saw that God is still fighting every battle that we face today too. God is fighting the big battles that I can’t possibly comprehend how they will be won, like regaining our moral compass in this country. If He can influence the hearts and minds of 340,000 men to bring their families to fight for David, He can influence the hearts and minds of Americans. And the figs and raisins were to remind me that God is also fighting every single small battle in my life….and in yours!
Just hours later, God showed me tangibly how he fought and won a battle for me that I didn’t even know I was having.
I’m doing a bathroom/laundry renovation and my contractor’s plumber is so busy that he hasn’t been able to get out to do the work in the timing that works for us. So I went out to find a new plumber. I used HomeAdvisor last night to submit for quotes and the first company that responded this morning after hearing my situation said they could send a guy out within the hour to take a look at the job. When he arrived, I mentioned that I was considering a gas dryer and wanted him to talk to me about the effort and cost to get a gas line added. So he asks to see under the house where our gas hot water is. When we open the crawl space area, the overwhelming smell of gas about knocked us down. I had a gas leak! We couldn’t smell the gas upstairs at all. And I’d been manually lighting our gas stove with an open flame for two days because of a bad breaker that needs to be replaced and I’m waiting on my electrician to come next week.
Brent the plumber immediately went to work to repair the gas leak. God knew I had a gas leak when I didn’t. God knew I needed the right warrior to fix the job. And God sent him TO me.
Thank you, God, for fighting the small battles in my life, even those I don’t even know I have, so I can more fully trust that you are also fighting the big battles that seem impossible to win.
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