Journal of James's Journey with Jesus

WINNING LIFE’S BATTLES WITH HANDS LIFTED UP

Go to any church and they will tell you that lifting up your hands symbolizes surrender and thanksgiving to God. Ever wondered where it came from? I was at church service many Saturdays ago when I felt God speak to me about its origin in the Bible.

Have you ever had a problem you could not solve hands-down? Or an easy one that did not even require you to lift a finger? What I want to suggest is to depend on God and give Him thanks in every situation.

Exodus 17:8-13 records a battle won by lifting hands to God.

Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.”

So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

Moses, the anointed leader of Israel, had just led the Israelites out of Egypt with amazing signs, miracles and wonders from God just 3 days ago. They were given water from the Rock, manna from Heaven but hardly enough rest. Just then, the Amalekites launched a well-planned attack on them.

I bet the Israelites were waiting to see Moses call down fire from Heaven to consume their enemies, or some other amazing feat of God.

But he had a battle strategy which Sun Zi and Napolean would have considered foolish. Instead of devising a battle plan and giving combat commands, he chose to lift up his hands to his God. He firmly believed in a God who would save, not a God who could.

As we can see, his dependence on God was what turned the tides of war against his enemies. It had nothing to do with the strength of Israel’s army, who had barely escaped from Egypt not so long ago. The physical battle in the physical realm was affected by the spiritual battle in the spiritual realm.

We often say, the weaker we are, the less the extent to which God can use us mightily. By this we greatly undermine the fact that God uses the weak, not the strong, to shame the strong and bring Himself glory. And we greatly overrate our usefulness to an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God.

The truth is, the weaker we are, the stronger He gets. He is faithful to the faithless. When problems and doubts in our life get troubling and gigantic and we feel so small and helpless, He’ll become bigger. Just think about it. If God needed you to be strong to use you, He isn’t that omnipotent, is He?

The strength of every man will fail. I learnt that when I saw my own strength fail; it turned to nothing at the challenge of an enemy bigger than myself. And Satan is bigger than us; he’s just not bigger than our God.

This story teaches us to surrender and trust in the Lord completely, no matter how stupid or tired we feel because

Isaiah 40:28-31 also tells us,

Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,

But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

It’s not about our strength, it's about His.