The Daily Word

 

In the Bible, we have the record of the Exodus of the Children of Israel escaping from Egypt. They were led for the whole of their 40 + years by Moses, who endured all sorts of trouble with them but eventually they travelled to the very outskirts of the Promised Land, Israel, which God had promised was going to their homeland. And that was the time that Moses relinquished his leadership and handed over the job of occupying the Land to Joshua, and then Moses died.

Joshua had worked closely with Moses and had actually got into the Promised Land 40 years before when he was one of the 12 spies Moses sent into Jericho to plan the occupation. Joshua and Caleb brought back positive reports, because they knew God was with them and would subdue any of the Land’s peoples, but the other 10 spies were fearful, they didn’t trust God and because the people believed the 10, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

Now Joshua, on his own, felt that the task of leading a million+ people into this land, with all the battles that would need to fought was too big for him, but God encouraged him with the same words we need to take notice of, “Be of good courage…..”. Psalm 27, which we were looking at on Saturday, says the same words but adds the reason why we can be ‘of good courage’, “….. and He shall strengthen your heart”. 

Whatever problems we are facing, we can literally leave them with God and ask Him to strengthen our hearts. We know that as mere human beings, used to having to cope with trivial situations daily and make instant decisions, we don’t use God enough, We try, too often, to sort it ourselves without asking Him to give us the solution. Those problems that don’t go away, God gives us the courage to face them, if we only ask Him.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church