1 Chronicles 5:20,  They were helped in fighting them, and God delivered the Hagrites and all their allies into their hands, because they cried out to Him during the battle.  He answered their prayers, because they trusted in Him.

A few of the tribes of Israel went to battle against the Hagrites and obviously were struggling in the battle so they cried out to God and He delivered them because they trusted Him.

How much do you trust Him?  Do you find yourself telling Him when you pray how He needs to handle things because you just can’t take any more?  By all means it is ok to pour your heart out to God like that, but you don’t need to come up with the plan.  He sees and He knows so by all means, “cry out to God” and then trust Him to do what needs to be done.  In these verses it says that they “cried out to God” so my guess is that in the heat of the battle they were pouring their hearts out to God asking Him to show up and they weren’t even going to entertain the thought that He might not! Delay could cost some people their lives!  They needed Him and they needed Him now!  They prayed and they trusted Him to do what was necessary in their lives to give them the victory they needed.  

They trusted Him!  Those words really stood out to me as I read this because it made me think of how many times I have poured my heart out to God and then I could barely function because of the anxiety and frustration of the storm raging in my life.  Even though I prayed and prayed and prayed, I didn’t really trust Him to show up when He was needed, and then got frustrated when my unbelief stood in the way! Sometimes He shows up to give us the grace we need for the day so we can make it through the struggle, learn what we need to learn, and glorify Him in the process.  It is possible to shut out that grace if we are too busy throwing a fit because we don’t have that answer we have been praying for.  Keep in mind that just because you don’t see Him working that doesn’t mean that He isn’t! How often do you pray about something but then you try to handle it on your own instead of trusting Him?  What if your answer was coming today, but you are in the way trying to do it all yourself?  If you read the next verse in this chapter it talks about all of the plunder they took and in verse 22 it says that “the battle was God’s”.  The reason the battle was The Lord’s was because they prayed, gave it all to Him, and trusted Him for the outcome!  

When we pray, we need to:  

• ask for forgiveness for any sin in our life
• Ask Him to create a clean heart and right attitude in us
• Praise Him for Who He is!
• Pour our hearts out to Him
• Thank Him for all He has done and is going to do in our lives!
• And then trust Him to do what He knows is right and best and trust His timing!

What battle do you need Him to fight for you today?  Are you trusting Him?  If you are lacking in faith and trust, then ask Him to “help your unbelief”.  One of the toughest things we face in situations like this is when we wait and wait and things appear to be getting worse, not better and satan moves in with even more lies to make us question everything.  God is Sovereign and He is faithful to His Word and His character!  He sees everything and one of the biggest hurdles in our prayer life can be getting to the point that we fully grasp that what we are praying for isn’t just going to affect us.  You must stop and think about God’s desire to work in the lives of people that your prayer is going to affect.  It is too easy to get so consumed with the outcome we desire to forget that.  That is why we have to fully trust Him and His timing. He wants you to have victory in your life and He wants your life to shine, revealing all that He is so others will be drawn to Him.  Don’t allow unbelief to stand in your way.  Don’t give satan a foothold in your life with his lies as he tries to tell you that this is all for someone else.  You matter to God!  You are important and He loves you!  You are His child and He wants you to walk in that confidence!  Praise Him today ~ He is working on it and His best is yet to come in your life if you will stick close by His side!