From her book 100 favorite verses TO BRING YOU CLOSER to CHRIST by Shauna Humphreys wrote:
Be not afraid or dismayed by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. . . . Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. 2 Chronicles 20: 15, 20
The History of the world is of battles fought and battles won and lost. It is an ongoing saga as vast as nations striving against each other for supremacy and preservation of ideas and ideals. It is as intimate and personal as one individual’s battle for the acquisition of faith in a God who promises to fight our battles. It is a history begun in the premortal setting, where the adversary sought to dethrone God the Father, usurp His glory, and deny us our agency, and where he was soundly defeated by the forces of truth and righteousness.
In the ongoing battles between good and evil, we read marvelous victories where man’s faith and God’s intervention preserved his people. We thrill at the story David and Goliath, where a young boy armed only with a sling and his faith in God brought down a bully whose only claim to fame was a massive physique and an even more colossal ego. David’s words were a courageous preface for what was to follow and for a testimony that surely astounded and humbled the assembled armies. “This day wilt the Lord deliver thee into my hand; and all the assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into my hands” (1 Samuel 17:46-47). And the rest of the story is sacred history.
. . . . How moving . . . is the account of the prophet Elisha’s deliverance from the Syrian armies, wickedly intent on destroying him. When his servant saw the host of the enemy arrayed in battle formation, he was understandably frightened. Elisha’s reply to this terror-filled young man is breathtaking in its eternal implications: “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (2 Kings 6:16). Then seeing that his young servant was still afraid and confused, “Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).
When we trust in the Lord, we need not fear the multitudes that surround us. Temptations, societal ills, the subtle pressures and overt tyrannies of kingdoms, thrones, and principalities spawned by an adversary who would have us forget our Champion can never overthrow the power of personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and “they that be with us.”
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope or salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8).
~ Shauna Humphreys, 100 Favorite Verses to Bring You Closer to Christ (American Fork, Utah, 2012), 125-26
*Posts with a preamble asterisk (*) are for a more general audience and not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints.
