“I’m not really too concerned. The Lord is on my side. Greater is He Who is in me than he who is in the world. With Christ on my side I can have a laissez-faire attitude about the enemy and our spiritual foes. He’ll protect me; I can just relax.”
It may sound good but the strategy will blow up in your face and it is not Biblical. Yes, the believer has the indwelling Holy Spirit Who is the Constant in our lives. He arrives with our conversion and never leaves. That’s Biblical. And yes, we have Christ as our Savior and our Lord. But this is only a part of the safety equation.
Hezekiah was a reformer and under his God-fearing leadership there was a great spiritual revival in and around Jerusalem. But now the fierce enemy is approaching Jerusalem. The threat is real. Did he tell his people “Don’t worry! Everything will be fine. God is pleased with our spiritual progress so we can sit back and relax. He’ll ensure nothing happens to us”?
Yes, God was on King Hezekiah’s side but that did not give him the luxury to simply relax and use a hands off, indifferent approach to the enemy. He scrambled his people to action and high alert. He assigned a large team to cut off the flow of water so the enemy could not access good water. Some of the walls around the city were crumbling in places, so immediately, the work crews repaired the broken walls and constructed guard towers on the walls. Just in case the primary wall was not enough, he built a secondary wall around the main wall as double insulation from the enemy. After all that, he then convened a meeting and encouraged the people with words to this effect:
“Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria or his mighty army, for there is a power far greater on our side! He may have a great army, but they are merely men. We have the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles for us!” Hezekiah’s words greatly encouraged the people (2Chron 32:7-8).
My responsibility as a believer has two parts to it: 1) Take every possible precaution to guard myself against the enemy; and 2) constantly look to the Lord for safety and protection.
