And Asa cried to the LORD his God, “O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.”
Asa is staring down an army of a million men with a fraction of that in soldiers. He doesn't pretend the math works out. He just prays something almost disarmingly honest: there's none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, for we rely on you.
What's striking isn't confidence — it's the total absence of it apart from this one appeal. He doesn't claim he's earned a win. He doesn't produce a clever battle plan first and ask God to bless it. He names the size of the threat, admits he can't match it, and asks for help anyway, banking everything on the idea that strength and weakness look the same to God when he decides to act.
Most of us don't like admitting we're overmatched. This prayer only works because Asa did. Whatever you believe about whether prayers like this get answered, there's something worth noticing in a person willing to say, out loud, I rely on you because I have nothing else.
If there's something in your life right now that you know you can't handle alone, Asa's prayer is a fairly honest place to start.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.