Weary

What do you do when the battle has waged on for what feels like an eternity?

What do you do when the path you have been walking on feels more like a rut, that would take a herculean effort of the impossible kind to get out of it?

What do you do when you do not want to lose the little ounces of hope that still remain, but you are fearful they are drying up and a dessert place is taking over?

We sit. We allow others in.

The Bible records the first battle that the Israelites faced when they made it out of slavery was against the Amalekites. Moses stood on the hill overlooking the battleground with Aaron and Hur by his side. And as Joshua led the Israelites in the fight, something interesting kept happening. As long as Moses kept his hands raised, Joshua and the Israelites were in the winning position and taking ground. As soon as his hands fell they began to lose ground.

Seeing this happen, and knowing that Moses was getting tired, Aaron and Hur rolled a stone big enough to sit on, behind Moses. He took a seat and Aaron and Hur held his hands up for the rest of the battle—all the way until sunset!

Moses was one man. A man who had grown tired in the battle and couldn’t contend anymore without the support of his companions to hold his hands up.

And this what I mean by “we sit.” When the battle seems endless, when you don’t see an end in sight. When you know, that your very own smarts, planning, and strategizing is not going to win the battle, you sit. When you know that you have exhausted all your resources. When you know that you just can’t do it any longer, you sit.

You sit and you allow others to hold your hands up. Allow others to pray for your battle as if it were their own. Allow others to sing over you as you struggle to worship. Allow others to hold your hands so that eventually, in God’s time, the battle will be one.

When the Israelites defeated the Amalekits Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner. Scholars differ and aren’t totally certain why Moses needed to have his hands raised, but perhaps that he named the alter The Lord is my Banner suggests his arms were a sort of battle flag, raised over the people as they fought decrying the victory in their God.

We can’t know for sure, but this I do know. I have been in a battle myself for what seems like forever. And when it just seems so very unbearable, to the point I just might give up all hope. I call on my companions, my Aarons and Hurs. And they lift the prayers and the worship that I am struggling to lift in the faith that I am lacking, so the battle doesn’t defeat me, but the victory remains in the Lord.

Sit, sister. Allow your companions to hold your hands as they fight for the very thing you have grown weary in. He listens to the prayers of His people, even when we can’t pray them for ourselves.