Jehoshaphat had just received word that the enemy was coming. Instead of calling a council of war and ordering the troups to prepare at once for a major attack, he did a very interesting thing. You can read about it in 2 Chronicles 20. He called a prayer meeting!

At that prayer meeting, one man stood up, led by the Spirit of God, and suggested a plan. He told the people that they were to go out to meet the enemy, but that they would not need to fight, that the Lord would fight for them. So early the next morning they gathered to go out to meet the enemy, and after a short discussion, they decided to send the choir at the head of their company to sing praises to the Lord on the way to the battlefield.

How would you like to have been a member of that choir? It would have been a real victory to get the victory over trying to get the victory, wouldn’t it? Can you imagine someone in the bass section sticking a slingshot under his choir robe?

If you had been there that day, it would have taken far more faith to leave the slingshot home and go out in the name of the Lord, singing praises to Him, wouldn’t it? But somehow the people managed to do what Jehoshaphat had commanded, and the Lord won a mighty victory for them that day.

In the spiritual life, as well, victory is always won by looking to Jesus and depending upon His power. It is never won by trying to fight sin and the devil. It is never won by trying to “help” God out, allowing Him to do part of the work while we take potshots at the enemy on the side. Victory is God’s department. We can cooperate with Him only through seeking a relationship with Him day by day, and thus allowing Him to fight the enemy for us.

Perhaps you have tried the school-kid trick of balancing a broom on your hand. If you look at your hand, you’re in trouble. But if you concentrate your attention on the broom and look up, suddenly it becomes easy.

When we look to ourselves, we inevitably lose the victory– but when we look to Christ, victory comes as a result. How does the poem go?

“I looked at Christ, and the dove of peace flew in. I looked at the dove, and he flew away again.

Most of us have lost the victory, not because we haven’t tried hard enough to get the victory, but because we have tried too hard. We have been working on the victory itself, and in that very process we lose what we had hoped to gain.

In the growing Christian life, it is possible every day to work to gain the victory–and lose it; or to look to Christ instead of working on victory–and gain it.

Victory is like surrender, for it is based upon surrender. It is all or nothing. There is no such thing as partial victory.

We might illustrate this truth by using a “sin seismograph.”

First notice the one on the left. This is the way we have often tried to measure victory. Suppose at the beginning of my Christian life, I have a terrible temper. But I begin trying to get the victory, and after the first few times, my outburst of temper measures only nine on the scale.

After several years of being a Christian, losing my temper measures only six. After several more years of earnest effort, the needle only goes to three. And just before I die, I get in one good day, and the needle doesn’t even flutter. That is not victory!

Instead, notice the illustration on the right. It has only two numbers, zero and ten. Any time I depend upon myself instead of upon Christ, whether I have been a Christian for one day or for a lifetime, the needle will peg itself at ten, every time.

Any time I am depending upon Christ instead of myself, whether the first day of my Christian life or the last, the needle won’t even flutter.

God’s goal for us is that we learn to depend on Him all of the time. It is possible for us, as it was for Christ. The Desire of Ages, page 679, says,

“He knew that the life of His trusting disciples would be like His, a series of uninterrupted victories, not seen to be such here, but recognized as such in the great hereafter.”

What brings the uninterrupted victories? To be a trusting disciple. And only as we learn to know Him can we learn to trust Him all of the time. When we trust Him and look to Him, victory is assured.