Obedience

Joshua 1:7-8
Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.


Joshua had quite the mission on his hands – he had just taken over for Moses, the Israelites’ most beloved leader; and he was being commissioned to take the Israelites into the Promised Land – no small task, considering all that was involved! I can’t imagine how stressed he must have been – the pressure to succeed, especially in God’s eyes must have been tremendous. So, God comes to him and gives him a little tip – all he really needs to know to be successful in his ministry before the Lord.

Obedience.

I don’t think we ever really out-grow our struggles with disobedience. They start in our early childhood, and persist until the day we die. Yet, it is a struggle that is made easier with the strength of God, and it is a struggle that God expects us to fight with all that we are.

God’s love for us is not dependant upon our obedience, that is not what I am saying. I am simply saying that if we want to be successful and prosperous in our ministries, in our work for the Lord, we must listen to Him and obey all that He asks of us. We must spend time in His Word, meditating on it, not turning from it in any way. We must make a conscious choice to obey Him, then we are GUARANTEED success. That’s a guarantee I want, don’t you?

Of course, there will be times when we mess up, and that’s OK. We just need to let God pick us up, then we must seek Him for forgiveness, strength, and direction, and keep on. It is His strength by which we will succeed, we just need to be obedient in order to put ourselves in the place where we can readily draw from His strength, and benefit from it in every way.