God’s Warhorses

When to Fight and When to Follow

Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane?

…It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength, and charges into the fray.

It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; it does not shy away from the sword

…At the blast of the trumpet it snorts, ‘Aha!’

It catches the scent of battle from afar, the shout of commanders and the battle cry. –Job 39:19-25

The battle cry sounds. Cancer strikes, grief devastates, a relationship is severed. When the enemy of adversity mounts up against you, there’s a time to fight with unbridled tenacity. But there is also a time when you’re simply outmanned—the pain is beyond your control and beyond your understanding. In these times, says author Jake Chaya, victory lies in surrender.

“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.” –Abraham Lincoln

“I learned I couldn’t fight every battle, nor was I supposed to.” –Jake Chaya, author God’s Warhorses

In October 2010, Jake Chaya got the news: Hodgkin’s Disease. Lymphoma. Stage Four. Although he’d survived times of adversity, including the death of his son, Jake was totally unprepared for the physical and mental devastation wrought by aggressive cancer treatments. In God’s Warhorses, Jake reveals how he drew from the lives of Nehemiah, Joseph, and Jesus, while in the battle of his life, as God developed in him two distinct attitudes of a war horse: that of a warrior and that of a sheep. It turns out, there’s a time to mount up against your enemy, but there’s also a time to submit and trust. A time to fight. And a time to follow. Here, Jake shares these keys to perseverance and his experience with God’s power and grace—even in the unlikeliest of circumstances.