fighting

I feel like a prevalent sentiment in any adoption process is the feeling that you are fighting… whether you are an adoptive family or someone working in the field of adoption. Fighting for children, fighting for your family, fighting to complete your family, fighting on behalf of the orphan, fighting against governments, fighting against regulations, fighting against bureaucracy, fighting to lessen time frames, fighting to meet a deadline, and/or fighting for the promise you feel God has in store for you. I feel that one area of fighting that is often overlooked (by me at least) among all the other areas we find ourselves fighting in is fighting to know Him more intimately. Above all of these other things we are fighting for or against, we must remember that is the ultimate goal. Knowing Christ and bringing Him glory. Moment by moment, day by day. When things go well and when they do not. A lot easier said than done. He must be our focus and He must be our finish line. Our eyes must remain on Him as we trust that His eyes will remain on our battles, no matter how big or small. He cares about them even more than we do and He can handle them much better than we can! I hope the following passage encourages you today.

2 Chronicles 20:3-9, 12, 15, 17
Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord. And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you – for your name is in this house – and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’… O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you… Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s… You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you.”

Allison Fuqua
International Social Worker