Don't fight alone

I've been re-reading a book lately by Francine Rivers called 'A voice in the wind' which frankly is AMAZING, but I was struck again by something which made me stop the first time I read it. This was quite odd because very rarely will I put a book down once I've picked it up (yes, I'm a bookworm) - but this part was so significant and filled with unimaginable meaning and significance that I simply had to stop and meditate on it. Here's the quote;
'Do you remember the story of Jehoshaphat? The sons of Moab and Ammon and Mount Seir came against him with a mighty army. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel and God said through him, 'Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.' While they sang and praised the Lord, the Lord himself set ambushes against their enemies. And in the morning, when the Isrealites came to the lookout of the wilderness, they saw the bodies of the dead. No one escaped. The Isrealites had not even raised a hand in battle, and the battle was won.' Kissing her head, he had said, "Stand firm in the Lord, Hadassah. Stand firm and let him fight your battles. Do not try to fight alone."
Now I know that's quite a long quote to prove a point; but I spent ages trying to find the story of Jehoshaphat in the Bible and I found it :D 2 Chronicles 20:1-30.

This point struck me so hard, because so often we can get caught up in our own little battles; struggling against our own enemies and God's just there like 'I'm here, won't you let me fight for you? Hello?' and we're so focused and determined to achieve what we're doing ourselves that we end up saying 'No, I can do this, let me do this alone'. What we're doing is likely even to be for Jesus! I can think of many situations where I've been preparing for a Christian event or something related to that and I'd get so stressed just completely focused on the task at hand, almost brushing the Big Man off every time He tries to intervene. Even talking to our non-Christian friends we can lay all the responsibilities on ourselves and be so focused on talking a good argument and convincing them of the truth within the pages of the Bible, that we miss out God altogether.

But what struck me most about this passage, wasn't that God fought for them, but God won for them. Now that sounds silly because God is God. But going back to the examples I was using a moment ago, like when we're talking to our Christian friends, or organising an event, I would expect that there would be quite a lot of physical effort that I would have to put into those things to make them work. But in this passage, the Isrealites don't even lift a finger!! They do nothing. All they do is praise Jesus.
Wow.
Because what this phrase 'Don't try to fight alone' is saying, isn't that we should start fighting and then run to God when things get tough, it isn't even that we should allow God to fight with us as equals, but it's saying that we need to allow God to fight FOR us.
Which is pretty awesome, pretty daunting and pretty scary, right? Leaving everything up to him.

Now I am not saying that is how it always works, in fact Biblically, faith and works are important and we can't just sit back and expect God to do all the work, because he's chosen us as tools.

I think, this passage is really about prayer and faith. About actually fully surrendering EVERYTHING in your life, into the hands of God. About bringing your burdens and plans to God (willing for him to tear them apart and build new ones) and surrendering them to him. Not just sitting back, but allowing him to do his thing. God is a gracious and loving God and he want's to fight for us; he's already won the ultimate victory, but he wants to fight for us now - and we have to let him.