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2 Chronicles 14:11 · World English Bible

2 Chronicles 14:11 Meaning Asa Cried to Yahweh His God

Asa cried to Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, there is no one besides you to help, between the mighty and him who has no strength. Help us, Yahweh our God; for we rely on you, and in your name are we come against this multitude. Yahweh, you are our God. Don’t let man prevail against you.”

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What does 2 Chronicles 14:11 mean?

There is a strength that has nothing to do with numbers, nothing to do with whether you are many or few, powerful or powerless in the eyes of the world. The ego counts its forces and despairs, because it knows only the power of form, and form can always be outnumbered.

From the Ego v. Being reading below.

2 Chronicles 14:11 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

EGO & BEING

Ego v. Being

There is a strength that has nothing to do with numbers, nothing to do with whether you are many or few, powerful or powerless in the eyes of the world. The ego counts its forces and despairs, because it knows only the power of form, and form can always be outnumbered.

To say we rest on thee is to stop drawing on the ego's frantic effort and to act from the stillness of Being beneath it. Facing what overwhelms you from that inner ground, you no longer depend on how much power you hold. Your steadiness comes from presence, not from how many stand with you, which is why being outnumbered no longer decides the outcome.

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Ego v. Being lens

Live 2 Chronicles 14:11 today

  1. Before something you are dreading, sit for one minute without your phone and feel your own breathing. You are not gathering courage, you are just stopping the inner count of what you lack.
  2. When someone tells you about a situation where they feel outmatched, resist the urge to tally their options for them. Just stay calm and present beside them, and let them borrow that instead of advice.
  3. In a meeting where you are the only one holding a position, drop your shoulders and let a silence sit before you speak. Say the true thing once, quietly, without trying to make your voice bigger than the room.

When you feel outnumbered, what are you actually counting?

The same truth in other traditions

Tao Te Ching

The soft and yielding overcomes the hard and strong, because it draws on something that does not need to be bigger to prevail. Water asks no one how many stand with it.

Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius

The things outside you can mass against you in any number, but they cannot touch the part of you that is actually making the decision. Your steadiness is not a quantity, so it cannot be outnumbered.

Bhagavad Gita 2

Arjuna is told to act from the self that was never born and never dies, rather than from his count of chariots. The one who acts from that ground is not calculating odds at all.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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