Living Grace Part 10

???????For forty years the former Egyptian slaves who were now the nation of Israel had wandered the desert.?Each day God provided their food and water, now there was a generation that did not know the pain of slavery.?Only Joshua and Caleb were left from those that had left Egypt.?They had had witnessed the power of God defeat the mightiest force in the world of that time.?Except for those two they primarily knew God as provider and law giver.?But God was about to reestablish the fact that He is also a warrior.?Just like with God our provider there was an expectation of obedience to His law.?If they obey, they would see victory and never experience defeat.?While these men and women believed in God and in His promise of this land, there was no way they could imagine just how He might pull this off.?Each day they had to get up and obey in little things.?

????The priests had to carry the arc of the covenant and step into a flooding river before the waters would pull back and make a path for the nation to cross. Courageous men had to wait for the hour and day to march and then march silently.?When the day came for them to shout, they had to shout with all their might.?I wonder what they thought was going to happen.?Certainly, they had expectations of some sort.?Maybe they would shout, and the people of Jericho would simply surrender.?My guess is that few considered the possibility that God would dramatically tear down the walls of Jericho.?Nothing like that had been done in the history of man.?This had to seem unbelievable and shocking.?Clearly the people of Jericho were taken unaware.?But when God shows up in the power to take down walls even Joshua had to be amazed.?

????It is this amazement that I often see lacking in our modern church.?He will do greater things than we can even imagine.?My role is to purposely look to see what God is doing and then join Him in what He is doing.?Never is it my role to sit down and explain to Him how to operate the universe.

??With the victory over Jericho, the taking of the rest of the promised land should have been easy and carefree.?However, we have story after story of disobedience.?There are stories of the wisdom of man doing things their own way and never consulting the King of Kings.?They were again eating from the wrong tree.?We are oh so wise.?Make a treaty here, attack a city with fewer men there and soon the simple task takes much more time than it should have, if they had only trusted that God was Sovereign.?If only we would trust that God was sovereign.

???This pattern reoccurs in pretty much the rest of Scripture.?We see, we know that God absolutely knows better than us.?He offers us the Tree of Life.?The fruit of that tree does not always look good to us.?One of the prophets tells us that, “His ways are not our ways.”?I think it is best if God heal this friend or family member immediately.?I pray in faith.?I fast.?My heart searches and repents of sins real and imagined.?Tears fill my eyes.?I demand that God take Jericho in my way and in my time.?Day by day I remind Him of the promise.?Yet God does things in His time and in His way.?He may choose to heal, maybe tomorrow He will bring health.?It is even possible that He will allow this person to pass into eternity.?

We argue with God’s way.?You can do that.?He welcomes our thoughts and emotions.?The Creator understands all of that.?It was Him that wired us as we are, and nothing really surprises Him except when He discovers real faith in the world.?You can argue with God, but you will lose but only 100% of the time.

NOTE: Living Grace is about a lifestyle. We can help you develop the culture of your business, organization and church to embrace the Living Grace lifestyle. Contact Rich Schaus at [email protected] to learn more.