Today’s story is about a king from long ago, in the Bible. He was in a real tough situation. His name was Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat is chilling as king, maybe sipping a fruity cocktail or eating grapes. He was the big cheese, the boss man. Everything was good in the kingdom until one day…
2 Chronicles 20:1-2 …the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites declared war on Jehoshaphat. 2 Messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is marching against you….”
The Moabites, the Ammonites and the Meunites declared war to King Jehoshaphat.
Hang on a second! What’s with all these names? Moabites, Ammonites, Mosquito bites? Not Mosquito bites! It’s like when we called a person from New York, New Yorker, or someone from Germany, German. In other words, the Moabites were from a country named Moab, the Ammonites from Ammon, and the Meunites from Maon.
But, the main thing from this verse is that Jehoshaphat was in some trouble. Did you catch that? Not just one army or even two. Three whole armies were coming to fight him! Yikes!
What do you think Jehoshaphat did when he heard this awful news? What would YOU do?
Think about it. What do you do when things go wrong? How do you act when a friend is mean to you or when someone in your family is sick, or when you get in trouble for something that you didn’t do? Do you pout, hit, or cry?
Wanna guess what Jeho did? (We decided to call him “Jeho” for short). Jeho called all of the people together and he did something really simple.
Jehoshaphat prayed to God when he was in trouble.
2 Chronicles 20:6 He prayed “O lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven. You are ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. You are powerful and mighty; no one can stand against you!”
See what he did? He prayed! Before he did anything else, he prayed and told everyone else to pray, too. (He was King. He could do that.) The Bible says he was really scared but he didn’t let that get in the way. Instead, he prayed such a great prayer, that it’s our memory verse this week:
2 Chronicles 20:9 “…We can cry out to you to save us, and you will hear us and rescue us.”
Jehoshaphat knew that God was the only hope for his kingdom.
There was no way they could defeat three armies by themselves. So, they prayed. Wanna guess what happened after Jehoshaphat and the people prayed? God answered.
All of a sudden, the other armies just started fighting each other. They didn’t even come after Jehoshaphat’s army at all! Then, when Jehoshaphat and his people showed up to the battlefield they didn’t have to do anything. Can you believe it?
Jehoshaphat learned a big lesson about prayer. He learned that God hears and answers our prayers. Isn’t that cool! Now, we know that we have to pray to God, but how does God want us to pray? It’s easy, just do these 3 things:
- Praise God
- Pray for others
- Pray for you
Did you notice the order? Praise God first. It helps us remember that He is our only real help. Then, pray for other people. It’s good for us to look outward and to think about the needs of our friends before our own. Then, ask God to help us with whatever we’re going through. Remember, God hears and answers our prayers.
God wants to help you in every situation.
Do what king Jeho did. PRAY.
