Imagine if you had a huge task before you or a challenge.
Something you have never done before, what would you do?
Joshua was in that situation. Moses has died and he has
taken up leadership of 3 million people. His job was to take them into the promise land;
it was a big job because they were a difficult bunch. It wasn’t just taking
them from A to B but in B there were enemies!! However God said that he was
giving them the land. The promise of God was there in and for a difficult situation.
In Joshua Chapter 1 we see how God instructs Joshua how to
be prosperous and successful.
Josh. 1:1 The
Promise given to Moses is passed on to Joshua
Verse 8 He is given
further instructions.
Think about it. Is God giving him a great military strategy? No! All
He tells him is to have his quiet time every day ! There is no iron dome to
protect them. All he is asked is to do is to read the scriptures meditate on it and obey
it and that will make him successful. Was it a command or a suggestion? It’s a command
- a promise with a condition.
In life we face many challenges, in health, finances,
relationships, unanswered prayer. What do we do, how do we overcome? The
solution is the same - the one given to Joshua is applicable to us as well.
1. Do not let this
book depart from your mouth. What book was he talking about? The first 5
books of the Bible, not some gurus’ Secret of success. Its talking about
meditating, reading and obeying God‘s word.
Think about it. Depart from your mouth? What does this mean?
The Words of the book should be on our minds, our lips: we should be able to read, recite
and mediate.
2Tim. 3:16 All
scripture is God breathed. It’s not been written by man, but God inspired even
as men wrote it.
Psa. 19:7-11 - As
you read God’s word it will revive your soul. As you feel hopeless or without
faith, faith will come when you read the Word. We get wisdom from above from the
Word. The Word brings joy to our heart.
If you are feeling faithless, hopeless, joyless, read the Word,
it will revive you.
2. Meditate on it day and night – its one
thing to read, but reading is not enough. How many of us read something in the
morning and forget what we’ve read by the evening.
In Hebrew there are two words for meditate – The first one is to “mutter” which is
similar to worrying. Muttering – instead of worrying about the situation,
you mutter the word. You confess the promises in scripture. 2 Cor. 4:13, I believed, therefore I
have spoken out. When we believe we speak.
Your situation may be bleak, but confess the promise and the
truth. Can you talk and eat at the same time. When you confess truth, you keep
negative thoughts away from you. We protect ourselves with the shield of faith.
The second meaning for meditate is "like a cow chewing cud". We read on the word, feed on it but throughout the
day He wants us to think about it. You will not be able to do this if you don’t
memorize it. Memorize as you drive to work, go to the
toilet, and have a glass of water. As you do this, God will give you new
insights into His Word.
Psa. 1:2 Blessed is the man ... His
delight is in the law of the law. Do I delight in it?
Why is this important? Prov.
23:7 As a man thinks, so he is.
AS you think about the truths in the Word you will be transformed, and those
things will happen in your life. What you fix your mind on, that is what will happen
to you.
Day and night – i.e. all the time. Today when you go out for lunch –
share something that impacted you from the Word. Let’s sharpen each other. Let’s
teach each other.
3. Be careful to do
everything that is written in it – this is obedience. It’s good to read,
recite, and remember but it’s useless if we don’t obey. What is one thing that
we can obey? Think about Nike – “just do it”. Take one thing, not ten things
and obey it. The Bible warns us about knowing and not obeying James 1:22.
If we just read and not do we are being deceived. V25 If we
obey, we will be blessed in all he does. See how it connects with Josh 1:8.
This is a simple
formula. We are all weak but the grace
of God is there. There is no condemnation, but if we love Jesus see what John 15 says : If his
words remain in us we can ask anything..
At Word of Grace we encourage everyone to have a notebook
and journalize and as you do this day after day, you will see how you will grow
in God’s word. If you don’t have a journal, can I encourage you to get one?
Then you will be prosperous and successful - God’s anointing,
enabling and favor will be upon you. We will never be perfect in understanding,
meditating or obeying the Word. But as we do it amazing things will happen. See
what happened with Joshua – God asked them to do something and the walls of
Jericho came crumbling down and they experience success after success.
At the end in Joshua 21:43- The Lord gave them rest and
success. The Lord handed over all the enemies to them. Every one of the
promises of Israel was fulfilled. WOW!!Wouldn’t you want that to be your
testimony? I want that. If you are student, working, in our family, in our
finances etc God want s us to be blessed.
What is prosperous – Some say it refers to success not
money. I beg to defer. Jos 22 :6 - Return to your homes with your great wealth..So
wealth is also included, but its not only wealth. Some focus only on wealth.
Rom 15:4 For
everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that
through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they
provide we might have hope.
If you want hope, meditate on what happened to Joshua and do what he did. God
gave promises and instructions and Joshua obeyed. The result is success and prosperity.
Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again), Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.
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