Joshua, Day 18
Observation: The Lord instructed Joshua to designate cities of refuge that were open not just to the Israelites but to foreigners living among them. He went on to assign towns to the Levites – the priests – situated throughout the tribal territories. In the end, the Lord had given them everything they had been promised.
Application: You know those neurotic, slightly annoying people who occasionally write down things on their to-do list that they’ve actually already done just so they can check them off?
I’m one of those people.
(Insert approximately one million monkey-covering-his-face emojis here. I AM THE WORST.)
Don’t even get me started on group projects. All my fellow to-do-listers, aren’t group projects the worst? People have NO RESPECT for your to-do list and your need to get things done, like, yesterday. If we’re on a group project together, I don’t have terribly high expectations. I simply want you to do what you said you’d do (or, more accurately, what I told you that you would do) by the time you said you’d do it (or, again, more accurately, the time I said you should have it in by). JUST FOLLOW DIRECTIONS.
Maybe it’s because I’ve had some pretty rough group project experiences, but I’m pretty distrustful sometimes. I have a hard time believing that someone will do what they said they’d do when they said they’d do it by – and instead of giving them a chance to come through, I often rush in and try to do it all myself.
And, worst of all, that distrust creeps into my relationship with God much too often. Hurt by the imperfect people around me, I start to believe that my God is imperfect too, that he won’t do what he said he would do.
What a lie.
God doesn’t leave promises unfulfilled, even if they take years – or in the case of the Israelites, centuries – to come true.
“Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.” (v. 45)
Every promise came to pass.
He came through for the Israelites, and he’ll come through for you, too.
What promises has he spoken over your life that haven’t yet come true – but will, because you can trust him fully and completely? Pray over those promises today.
(Interested in learning more about the promises of God? Check out my two-part “Assurances” series, which walks you through fifteen of the most powerful promises God makes to each one of us.)
Prayer: God, thank you for speaking good things into existence. Thank you for being worthy of our praise, fully trustworthy. I pray I can fix my eyes on your eternal promises rather than my temporary circumstances. Amen.