Joshua 9.14 There
has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a
human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
If one reads Joshua 9 there is an account of the sun
standing still while the Israelites fought against the Amorites. The day lengthened! The sun stopped. Wow! It
made me think: hmmm, sometimes there just
aren’t enough hours in the day. The Bible tells me, one day, there actually
was.
What got me this morning was what the writer of Joshua
exclaimed at the end of the account of this might miracle: Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel! Made me think the writer was
a bit blown-away as well.
Can you point to a miracle in your life? Has there ever
been a time when things have just worked out, for you? Maybe it wasn’t a
miracle; maybe you just came to the conclusion: things are going to work out after all. And maybe there has never
been a day, before or after, like that in your life.
I think we want things to work out always. I think we want multiplied miracles, non-stop. It might
make life interesting. But it also might make life monotonous. I think there is
something to be said for mystique –
the unpredictable; the unforeseen, the unexepcted. That seems more like God’s
M.O.
It doesn’t take a miracle for God to come through, and God
doesn’t need our approval. Truly, according to what was written in Joshua, the
Lord was fighting for Israel, but
there was only that one day when the
sun-stood-still. The reality is, the Lord is
fighting for us always – we just have to believe that truth – miracle or no.
Sometimes the fight of life includes a miracle, but all the time it requires
faith. Miracle or not, God is truly fighting for His own.
The truth is: God
loves and fights for His own. Always. The truth is: God is never defeated.
There’s a concept for you. Sickness, discomfort, poverty, lack – there are all
things God uses in the lives of people; but His perfect will for all of us is
accomplished whether we believe that
or not.
Recently, I have experienced a couple things that have
caused me to rethink the fight God fights for me. They have been encouraging
things, and they have come in the form of blessing in the monetary sense. But,
sun-standing-still notwithstanding, blessings are never an end in themselves –
they are only ever a means. Israel had the sun stand still for them only once;
the rest of the time it was a call to faith in what God had said, and done on
their behalf.
Father, You do
fight for us. No, the sun hasn’t stood still since that day, but Your love for
Your own continues. Thank You for meeting our needs and for what You are doing,
and have done, on our behalf. Regardless of the outcome, life is still a faith
journey and Your promises are true and everlasting. Thank You for helping me
– Amen
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