In my personal Bible study time, I am in the book of Joshua. Love Joshua! He was a called-out man of character and integrity. The legacy Joshua left is one that all of us who name the name of Christ would do well to emulate. In the 3rd chapter, Joshua reminds us of our responsibility to prepare for what God wants to do in our lives. In essence, Joshua tells us, and the Israelites, to ‘prepare for amazing’.
Read Joshua 3: 5 with me.
Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”
I want ‘amazing’ in my life. How about you? I think we all would like to see God’s hand move in our lives in wonderful ways. But……are we willing to do what it takes in order to bring about that movement of God’s hand? Are you willing to do what it takes? Am I willing?
Joshua told the people to ‘consecrate’ themselves. What did he mean? In essence Joshua was telling the people to wash up, clean up, look different, and set yourselves apart as holy. Probably the people would bathe and put on clean clothes. The married couples would refrain from sexual relations for a time in order to focus completely on God. The people would enter into a time of soul searching and confession of their sin so they could be spiritually clean before God.
Perhaps you and I could take a lesson from the Israelites if we want to see God be amazing in our lives.
- Are there areas of your heart and life that need to be scrubbed clean?
- Is your tongue need of a makeover?
- Do you gossip or lie?
- Are you trustworthy and faithful?
- Is seeking the heart of God through Bible study and prayer a regular part of your daily life?
- What idols do you worship? Money, kids, job, status, car, house, your body? Do you need to do some idol-smashing in order to position yourself to see God do amazing things in your life?
- Are the numbers of blog visitors, friends, followers or tweets more important to you than what God is doing in your heart?
Are you willing to do what it takes to ‘prepare for amazing’ or are you satisfied with the status quo, when the status ain’t really much to quo (crow) about?
You see, the Israelites could have decided to just stay right on the edge of the Jordan and never cross over because crossing was inconvenient and out of their comfort zone. They could have built homes on the edge of the Jordan and raised their families there, never crossing over to the Promised Land. They could have done the easy thing, the comfortable thing…..and they would have missed ‘amazing’.
What about you? Will you choose to ‘prepare for amazing’ or not?
