Stop Fighting Battles that Belong to God

“The battle is not yours, but God’s.” 2 Chronicles 20:15 (NLT)

Imagine you’re sitting on a plane that’s about to take off. As the plane begins speeding down the runway, you start flapping your arms. The plane picks up speed, the nose lifts, and you flap your arms even faster.

Once you’re in the air, the flight attendant walks over and asks, “What are you doing?” You reply, “Oh, I’m helping us get off the ground.” Ridiculous, right? But sometimes that’s exactly what we do with God. We try to help him carry things that were never ours to carry in the first place.

You don’t need to hold up the plane. And you don’t need to hold up God.

Why are you so tired? Why are you frustrated, anxious, and worn out by life? It may be because you’re trying to fight battles that belong to God.

When we face a problem, our natural tendency is often to become more independent. We think, I’ve got to figure this out. If it’s going to happen, it’s up to me. But that mindset can leave you exhausted because you were never created to carry everything by yourself.

Maybe you’ve been running in circles trying to fix something in your marriage, your health, your finances, your family, or the world around you. You’re trying to control every outcome and solve every problem with your own strength.

And you’re tired. Look - God never asked you to be God. Your responsibility is to be faithful with what he has placed in your hands. His responsibility is to handle what only he can handle.

Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is stop striving and surrender.

That doesn’t mean you stop praying. It doesn’t mean you become passive or irresponsible. It means you recognize the difference between what God has called you to do and what only God can do.

And when you finally reach the end of your strength, you don’t have to be ashamed. You may feel like you’ve made a mess of things or let God down. But God isn’t disappointed in you because you couldn’t do the impossible. He never expected you to.

The truth is, you don’t have God in your hands; he has you in his.

If you think you have to keep everything under your control, you’re putting yourself in a position God never intended for you. And if you’re trusting something you can control more than you trust God, that thing has taken a place it was never meant to have.

So let go. Surrender the need to control everything. Surrender the battle. Then do what God has actually asked you to do—and trust him with the rest.

You don’t have to hold up the plane.

The God who is carrying you is more than capable of carrying the battle, too.