In the book of 1 Kings, King Ahab of Israel defeated Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, with a few junior officers. Afterward, the prophet came to the king of Israel and said, “Strengthen your position and see what must be done, because next spring the king of Aram will attack you again” (20:22).
I believe all of us at Compassion, along with the awesome sponsors, have in one way or another experienced moments of victory and great achievements just like King Ahab. And yet as he was caught up in the celebrations, the prophet said, “Strengthen your position and see what must be done.”
Although it is good for us to celebrate achievements and acknowledge God’s hand of blessing, we must stay focused on our mission and continually strengthen our position. Otherwise, we could lose it all.
Our position in Christ Jesus and in the ministry must be strengthened because the enemy will attack again. The Amplified Bible says, “Go, fortify yourself and become strong and give attention to what you must do.” The Contemporary Bible puts it this way: “Benhadad will attack you again next spring. Build up your troops and make sure you have some good plans.”
Whatever you have overcome — emotionally, psychologically or physically — may attack again. What goes around comes around. Strengthen yourself, know what must be done and do it.
As we take our ministry to the neediest of the needy, pursuing the Great Commission in the world’s most difficult places, we will always encounter challenges, foreign foods, delayed flights, diverse cultures, misperceptions, difficult people, hurting and broken people, and know-it-all people.
Let’s fortify ourselves, become strong, and know what must be done.
Afterward, the prophet came to the king of Israel and said, “Strengthen your position and see what must be done, because next spring the king of Aram will attack you again.” —1 Kings 20:22, NIV
Prayer: Lord, help us to fortify ourselves and become strong in such times. Let Your strength be made perfect in our weakness. Make us a source of strength to all around us as we live for You daily. In Jesus’ name, amen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Emmanuel Namurinda is Program Evaluation and Research Specialist in our Rwandan office.
Read all the One in Spirit devotionals.
8 Comments |Add a comment
It is suchgreat reminder that i must be strong (fortify myself) during difficult times Such that His strength is made perfect in my weakness.
Wonderful reflection. This reminds me of the scripture 1 Corinthians 10:12- ‘So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!’. This is all time reminder that we keep the focus on our goal.
A focused person always think about the future celebrating now! Just knowing the fact that there will be a challenge in the future would make us strengthen our position.
In the book of 1 Kings, King Ahab of Israel defeated Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, with a few junior officers. stay focused on the mission,strengthening our position and wait what must be done.this is inspired me.God bless you !
The situation of Rwanda reflects in the passage written by our colleague of Rwanda office, couple of years back two of our Compassion Bangladesh colleagues express to us the real scenario of Rwanda and we pray for our colleagues in Rwanda to work on behalf of Church to raise the voice of poorest of the poor through Compassion Ministry there.
Having good planns and knowing what must be done. This blesses me everytime i read it
the blog just read sounds like a wonderful idea. How would I get menu ideas and recipes from Ethiopia, Burkino Fasa, Thailand & the Phillipines so we can eat like our children also????? I don’t want to ask my families because I would not want it to sound condescending.
Compassion has been doing a ‘Cook with Compassion’ theme on their blog, but I am unsure if they have done any of those countries yet. I would simply use an online search engine or visit your local library to find information about diets in other countries. I am sure the information is out there somewhere as a recent guest blogger did research to eat like her child for a week.