Corona Devo 141

Is God calling you out of your comfort zone?

Is there an adventure on the horizon, a new job, or a new relationship that He has said "Yes" to in your life, and yet we are in the cold feet stage?

It's one thing to talk about faith and living it out, but it is quite another thing to actually do it.  Can I get an amen?

For some of us (we know who we are), it's time to shift from cold feet and dipping a toe in the water, to trusting God.  It's time for us to dive in to what God has next for us.

Joshua and the Israelites were at the same point.  They were traveling, and they had a promised destination in sight...the Promised Land!  (What is on your docket that you have been waiting to happen, and it finally has, or is about to?)  But the Israelites had a barrier in front of them, the Jordan River.  We might have barriers blocking the path to the "next big thing" that God has for us, too: Fear, money, change, health, pride, etc. 

But God reminded the Israelites of their destination, and that they needed to trust Him along the way.  I feel like I am right there with them: my blockade is not the Jordan River, but new surroundings, social and emotional-pivots, complete changes in our daily work/school/church lives-- have stopped me in my tracks some days.  God says to move forward.

9 So Joshua told the Israelites, “Come and listen to what the Lord your God says. 10 Today you will know that the living God is among you. He will surely drive out the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites ahead of you... 13 The priests will carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.”  ~Joshua 3:9-10,13

I love this because God tells the Israelites (and us!) to listen to Him, and that by moving forward in their faith (actually putting one foot in front of another and taking the leap of faith in stepping into the water) they will know that God is among them.

God also promises to "drive out" their enemies.  He makes the same promise to us.  For the Israelites, they were peoples, but for you or me today, He will drive out our anxiety, our depression, our fear, our indecision, our pride, our anger, our lust.  Whatever enemy is seeking to attack us and keep us from moving forward on God's path--He will surely drive out.

Faith is trusting God when the waters of the world are rising around us, and we feel like we could be swept away...but we obey Him anyway.  Let's step out in faith today, just like the Israelites did.  Once they decided to obey, God moved their mountains to make it happen.   

14 So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. 15 It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, 16 the water above that point began backing up a great distance away...And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.  ~Joshua 3:14-16

Let's step out in faith and trust God to take care of the details.  He will do miraculous things in our lives if we trust Him!

When all the people had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Now choose twelve men, one from each tribe. 3 Tell them, ‘Take twelve stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan. Carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight.’”... 6 We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”  ~Joshua 4:1-3, 6-7

Repeatedly in the Bible, God tells His people (us!) to remember what He has done for us.  He knows we will forget, and so He tells the Israelites to build a memorial.  We need to figure out what that looks like in our lives and in our family's and do it.  Time passes.  Our memories fail.  People die.

In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean? (Joshua 4:6).  We must be purposeful about remembering the challenges that God has brought us through.  These "stones" become our testimony for God working in our lives.  

Keep a praise journal--where you jot down great things that God has blessed you with, or answers to prayers.  Or a prayer journal is also awesome because you can see God work over time as you pray for things, and when they are written or typed, you have proof of His presence moving in your life and in the lives of those you care about.  God wants us to keep memorials of our relationship with Him.  

My favorite take-away from these verses is that the Israelites did not stop on the banks of the Jordan River to build their memorial to God.  God instructed them (and us!) to keep moving forward.  Keep persevering.  Keep working hard and moving forward in our faith-journey with Him.  Stay on track with the plan that God has laid before us.  Carry (the stones) out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight. (Joshua 4:3).

Lord, you have a plan for us and our future, even if change takes us out of our comfort zone.  When we rely on you, we give You the authority over our lives, and our trust develops our faith in You.    

For some of us, it's time to shift from cold feet and dipping a toe in the water, to trusting God.  It's time for us to dive in to what God has next for us.

Let's take the next steps of faith towards our Promised Land today.

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com/