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Ready, Fire, Aim

Seek God First

SYNOPSIS: Joshua 9 tells the story of an ill-advised peace treaty with the Gibeonites. Why was it such a bad thing? As the text says, twice: “But they didn’t ask God about it.” Joshua’s failure to seek God first should serve as a cautionary tale as you make your decisions today. Even in small, seemingly insignificant ones, be innocent of hastiness. As Jesus would say, in all matters, large and small, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” May you always, always say, “I will ask God first!”

The Journey// Focus: Joshua 9:14-16

The men of Israel looked the Gibeonites over and accepted the evidence [that they came from a long distance away]. But they didn’t ask God about it. They examined their food and it appeared old, but they did not consult the Lord. Then Joshua made a peace treaty with them and guaranteed their safety, and the leaders of the community ratified their agreement with a binding oath. Three days after making the treaty, they learned that these people actually lived nearby!

“But they didn’t ask God about it.” No matter how overwhelming the evidence, no matter how good the idea, not matter how much something makes sense, we dishonor God and in the long run, if not the short term, hurt ourselves when we leave God out of the picture.

In this case, Joshua and his leaders made a hasty decision about a nation-tribe that lived in the land of Canaan, the Gibeonites. The Lord had instructed the Israelites, in order to possess the land, to dispossess the peoples who lived there. They should have destroyed the Gibeonites according to God’s orders, but the Gibeonites deceived Joshua’s leadership team into thinking they were not a part of those city-states that were devoted to destruction.

Joshua’s mistake was in assuming! In the spiritual realm, assuming pre-decides the will of God; it presumes. The sin of presumption is a big deal in the Old Testament, and the outcome of this sin is particularly destructive to the kingdom life in Israel. Had Joshua’s team asked God for his wisdom in the matter on the front side, the leaders would have been spared this embarrassing disobedience on the backside.

Interestingly, even after discovering that the Gibeonites had deceived Israel into making this peace treaty, Joshua nevertheless honored the treaty he had just made with them. Even though it had been made under false pretenses, Joshua was not guilt free in this matter. He had not consulted the Lord. I suspect Joshua’s attitude was a precursor to what the psalmist spoke of in Psalm 15, when he spoke of those who walked blamelessly in God’s sight. Among the characteristics of such people,

They keep their promises even when it hurts. (Psalm 15:4)

Now by all rights, Joshua could have broken the treaty he had just made and killed them—but their submissive posture and willingness to take on the faith commands of the Israelite community spared them from destruction. Joshua kept his oath, even though it hurt.

Fast forward to your life. Do you assume God’s will and fail to seek his input in your daily decisions, both great and small. Do you presume upon God? Are you guilty of a ready, fire, aim approach to living out your faith in the world where God has asked you to represent him? This is so easy to do, and we probably commit Joshua’s sin more often than we think.

Today, may Joshua’s failure to ask God first serve as a cautionary tale as you make decisions. Even in small, seemingly insignificant ones, be innocent of hastiness. Seek God first in all matters, large and small. And when you are ready to move forward in a matter, follow the correct protocol: ready, AIM, fire. May you always, always say, “I will seek the Lord first!”

Hmmm…sounds like something to which the Founder of our faith has called us: seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. Be a seek first person!

Going Deeper: What is on your to do list today? What is on the drawing board for your future? Have you asked God first? Have you sought his input before you move a step forward? If not, do it. If you have, keep doing it!

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Don’t Sacrifice Future Blessings For Temporal Fixes

Trust and Obey, For There's No Other Way

SYNOPSIS: God desires to bless us—he really does. But there is a path to blessing that we must follow. The path is against the grain of human reasoning and self-gratification, but it is the one and only path that God has chosen for his people to walk. What is that path? It is to ruthlessly truth and completely obey God! Walk it, my friend! It always leads to untold blessing! And on that path, don’t sacrifice a future of promised blessing that arrives only through trust and obedience for quick but temporal fixes that will end up destroying you.

The Journey // Focus: Joshua 8:2

You will destroy Ai this time as you destroyed Jericho and its king. And this time, you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves.

God told Israel to completely destroy Jericho—an evil city that was a part of an exceedingly evil culture—which happened to stand directly in the way as Israel entered the Promised Land. It was the first city of conquest, and as such, it was the first-fruits of sorts—the initial battle of the many battles to come in their conquest of Canaan. These first-fruits belong to God—in this case, and in every case. God says, “Give me the best (that is, the first part), then I will give you the rest. This is how you will honor me and keep me first in your life.” Thus with Jericho, the spoils of the battle were to be totally devoted to the Lord by totally annihilating this evil city and everything in it.

Yet one man, Achan, secretly, selfishly, and in willful disregard to what God has just commanded, took some plunder for himself (Joshua 7:20-21), and as a result of his individual disobedience, national disgrace settled upon Israel. The Israelites lost the next battle—one they should have easily won—and scores of warriors died. Because of the sin of one man, the whole nation suffered. Sound familiar? That is exactly what happened when Adam sinned,

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12)

When you read the story of Achan’s punishment—and the brutality of his entire family being executed for his sin—and you are both feeling sorry for them and miffed that God overreacted, keep in mind that thousands of Israelites were mourning the deaths of their warrior sons who had been killed in battled because of this one man’s selfish act. That will put the harsh consequences of disobedience placed upon Achan, along with his entire family, into a sobering but more understandable light.

The take-away from this story, and it is a sad one, is that Achan could have had everything his heart desired had he just followed the Lord’s commands. As we see in this next battle, the soldiers were free to take the plunder.

When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. Twelve thousand men and women fell that day—all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. But Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the Lord had instructed Joshua. (Joshua 8:24-27)

Achan made the mistake we often make: We sacrifice a future of promised blessing that arrives only through trust and obedience for quick but temporal fixes that will end up destroying us. Call it what you will—delayed gratification, long-range planning, ruthless trust—waiting upon God in faith and obedience is the job of the Christian. And scripture is replete with promises for those who do:

No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced, but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others. (Psalm 25:3)

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. (Psalm 37:4-5)

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33)

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

God desires to bless us—he really does. But there is a path to blessing that we must follow. The path is against the grain of human reasoning and self-gratification, but it is the one and only path that God has chosen for his people to walk.

Walk it, my friend! It always leads to untold blessing!

Going Deeper: Here is a prayer I would invite you to join me in lifting to the Lord: “Dear Father, would I have been an Achan if I were in his place? Would I have given into temptation and disobeyed you? Am I doing that now in some area of my life? Oh Lord, I don’t even want an answer to that—I just want you to purge me of any disobedience and faithlessness. I want to be pleasing to you. I don’t want to bring shame and injury upon my family or my church. I want to partake of the amazing blessings that come by trust and obedience. I want to be a part of the Joshua crowd, not the Achan clan. Lord, cleanse me and set my feet on solid ground. Lead me in the way everlasting. Establish my coming and my going so that I am completely devoted and pleasing to you!”

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Recalibrate

Are You On God's Side?

SYNOPSIS: Whether it’s pursuing your personal goals (“building your house”), protecting your interests (“watching over the city”), earning a living (“rising early and stay up late toiling”), or raising your family (“a quiver full of children”), at the end of all your efforts, nothing of lasting value and eternal consequence will have been accomplished if the Lord has not helped; even more, if the Lord has not been the architect and builder of your pursuits!

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Psalm 127:1-2

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.

During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was once asked if God was on his side. The president’s response was classic—and deeply profound: “It is not is God on my side, but am I on God’s side?”

That’s a great question to ask yourself in any of life’s endeavors—several of which are listed in Psalm 127. So whether it is in pursuing your personal goals (“building your house”), protecting your interests (“watching over the city”), earning a living (“rising early and stay up late toiling”), or raising your family (“a quiver full of children”), at the end of all your efforts, nothing of lasting value and eternal consequence will have been accomplished if the Lord has not helped; even more, if the Lord has not been the architect and builder of your pursuits!

And what is the best way to ensure the Lord’s help?  Not just to get the Lord on your side—that can be tricky business, given the exceeding craftiness of our own motives (Jeremiah 17:9).  Rather, the only surefire guarantee of the Lord’s help is to get on God’s side—and stay there.

Perhaps Lincoln’s question is a good one to ask yourself today: “Am I on God’s side?”  Are my goals God-given?  Are my interests dedicated to his purpose?  Is my work his work?  Is my family set apart for his glory?

If you are nervous about being able to answer those questions in a God honoring way, then wouldn’t you say it is time to recalibrate your life so that from the center to the circumference, you are aligned with God’s purposes?

I hope you will join me today for a little recalibration. If we can pull that off, we’ll be in good standing to get the Lord’s help.  And like the Apostle Paul, the testimony of our life will be, “But I have had God’s help to this very day, and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike.” (Acts 26:22)

“We cannot help conforming ourselves to what we love.” ~Francis de Sales

Reflect & Apply: What are the most significant pursuits occupying your time, energy and resources these days? Can you truly say of them, they are God’s agenda for your life? If not, let the recalibration begin.

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Painful Lessons

Private Actions Affect Public Relationships

SYNOPSIS: Does God still punish a community of faith when there is sin in the camp like he did when the whole nation of Israel suffered for the sin of one man, Achan? Of course, Israel was unique in that it was a theocracy, and we don’t live under that system today in our pluralistic democracy. So what was applied to Israel may not be exactly applied in our nation—although I suspect there is still a divine principle at play. Yet each of us does live in theocratic community if we belong to a family or a church. And in that sense, we need to give careful thought as to how our individual behavior might affect those who share life with us in the community. Here’s the deal: My private actions affect my public relationships.

The Journey// Focus: Joshua 7:11-13

The Lord replied to Joshua, “Israel has sinned and broken my covenant! They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me. And they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings. That is why the Israelites are running from their enemies in defeat. For now Israel itself has been set apart for destruction. I will not remain with you any longer unless you destroy the things among you that were set apart for destruction. Get up! Command the people to purify themselves in preparation for tomorrow. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Hidden among you, O Israel, are things set apart for the Lord. You will never defeat your enemies until you remove these things from among you.

Israel had just experienced the extreme thrill of defeating the great walled city of Jericho. It was an impenetrable fortress by ancient standards, but it collapsed like a house of cards before the Lord’s people. Then, just days later in the next battle, Israel was unexpectedly stunned at the fierce resistance of the small band of fighters at a little village called Ai. In a matter of hours, God’s people went from the sublime to the ridiculous. Ai was a relatively small and defenseless city of no account, yet its defenders fought for their very existence against the superior Israelite army—and Ai punched Israel in the mouth. Thirty-six of Israel’s fighting men were immediately killed in battle, and the rout was on. Israel was stunned, humiliated and disheartened.

All because of the sin of one man—Achan!

No matter how many times we moderns read the ancient story of the Israelites, we run across stories like this, Achan’s sin, and are left shaking our heads in wonderment—and not in the positive sense of wonderment. This is not a warm, fuzzy and inspiring story. And there are many like it with which we must contend as we journey through the Old Testament.

When we read these stories—and admittedly, we don’t have the backstory in every case—we are struck with a bad case of the fear of the Lord. There is no denying the anxiety we feel over his fierce holiness along with his swift and sweeping judgment against human violation of that holiness, for if this happened because of one sin, we don’t stand a chance before God for our many sins.

Furthermore, the story in Joshua 7 is not just a one off; there have been plenty. To name a few, we have witnessed the death of Nadab and Abihu for offering unholy fire on the altar (Leviticus 10), the execution of a blasphemer who cursed God’s name during a fight (Leviticus 24:10-23), the gruesome killing of a man who brought a Moabite woman into his tent to have sex with her—in broad daylight (Numbers 25), and now the stoning of a young man named Achan, along with his entire family, because he kept some of the expensive plunder from the battle of Jericho for himself.

Not that we would condone any of these sins—nobody who truly follows the Lord would justify any of these deliberate violations of God’s commands. Even still, the immediacy and severity of the punishment is hard to swallow for people like us who live at a time where consequences for actions seem to be decreasingly certain. So we read stories like this, and if we do anything with them at all, we simply toss them into the “Painful Lessons” file.

One of those painful lessons here is the corporate-ness of sin. In our culture, we worship individualism. In fact, the early heroes who built our nation are praised for their rugged individualism. We are proud of that and happen to believe that it is the superior way to live. While we nod our heads in agreement that whole community is important, we tend to see the parts as more important than the whole; the many are servant to the one. What child at school hasn’t whined that the whole class was punished for the actions of one student? To our western mindset, that is the height of unfairness.

Yet while we embrace the idea of unity, and the blessings that derive from it, why would we not accept the opposite? Why should we be surprised when the whole community suffers because an individual violates its values? If God favors corporate unity (Psalm 133:1-3), why would he not lift his favor from the community when sin invades it through an individual member? It cuts both ways—the whole is blessed when the parts are right; the whole is cursed when the parts are wrong.

I suspect you are still not convinced. I don’t like it either. But we have been so steeped in a cultural mindset of individualism that we simply cannot, or will not embrace God’s response to community when life in the community goes sideways. Of course, Israel was unique in that it was a theocracy, and we don’t live under that system today in our pluralistic democracy. So what was applied to Israel may not be applied to the same degree in our nation—although I suspect there is still a divine principle at play.

Yet each of us does live in theocratic community if we belong to a family or small group or ministry team or church. And in that sense, we need to give careful thought as to how our individual behavior might affect those who share life with us in the community. And while we don’t suffer the same degree of punishment that Achan and his family suffered, we can—and should—learn the painful lesson of Achan: My private actions affect my public relationships.

I love painful lessons, said no one ever—but thank God for them.

Going Deeper: Take a moment to prayerfully consider how your private attitudes, habits and actions affect your public relationships.

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Make Jesus Famous

Your One and Only Job

SYNOPSIS: Never in the history of Christianity have we had so many famous pastors—and those wanting to become famous—as we do now. But the true spiritual leader, the one with whom God is pleased, has one job and one job only: to make Jesus famous! And if Jesus wants to make the leader famous, well, that is Jesus’ business.

The Journey // Focus: Joshua 6:27

So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

With the advent of television—and all the media technologies that followed—came the rise of the celebrity preacher. Never in the history of Christianity have we had so many famous pastors—and those wanting to become famous—as we do now. If you’re a spiritual leader and you aren’t hawking several books you have authored, beaming your mug to adoring congregants in a muli-site campus, tweeting to your six figure Twitter followers and getting quoted by the media on the issue du jour, you ain’t all that much.

Of course, media technologies now allow us to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world in unprecedented ways—and that is a great thing. But inherent in this ability to communicate to the masses is the danger of showcasing ourselves. The god of fame is lurking; the seduction of celebrity has never being stronger in the Christian world than it is right now—and that’s not a great thing!

The true spiritual leader, the one with whom God is well pleased, has one job and one job only: to make Jesus famous! And if Jesus wants to make the leader famous, well, that is Jesus’ business. Joshua was a leader that God decided to make famous. Joshua 2:7 and 4:14 says,

The Lord told Joshua, “Today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites. They will know that I am with you, just as I was with Moses.” …That day the Lord made Joshua a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites, and for the rest of his life they revered him as much as they had revered Moses.

And of course, our featured verse today says, “God was with Joshua. He became famous all over the land.” (The Message) How refreshing! In today’s culture of celebrity where leaders do everything they can to make themselves famous, here is a guy who didn’t have to. God did it. And there is no better PR firm that the Holy Trinity!

What makes a leader great and opens the door to his or her fame? Some would say charisma is the key. Others might say it’s a combination of skill, intellect and the ability to inspire others to accomplish a compelling mission. Then there are those who would argue that not only are charisma and persuasion necessary, but it’s also a matter of being the right person in the right place at the right time.

I wouldn’t argue with any of those ideas. But above all else I would argue that what makes a leader a great and fame-worthy leader is simply God’s touch upon his or her life. Where God makes a man or woman great in the eyes of the people, there you have the makings of a leader who is one for the ages. Joshua was just such a leader.

In Joshua, you find true success! Not that he leveraged his considerable talents, sharp intellect, political capital and magnanimous personality to lead the people to victory, but that God made him great in the eyes of the people. Never did Joshua take any credit for himself in the victories and miracles that God performed. As Moses had been a humble leader, so too was Joshua. Like his predecessor, he was a true servant of God and of the Israelites. He served at God’s pleasure and recognized that his success came only by God’s power and grace. And it was God who made Joshua great before all Israel.

That’s the kind of leader I want to be. I want to be a great leader because of the touch of God on my life; because of the work that he does in, for and through me. If there is anything that makes me worth following, may it be because of what God has done. What I do through my own gifts, personality and personal determination will, at best, quickly fade. But what God does through me will last for all eternity, and best of all, bring all the glory to the God who has equipped me to lead.

What about you? Do you desire to be a leader—a person of influence in your home, school, business or some other arena? You might feel unqualified and unworthy. Part of you may want to let someone else lead; someone more qualified, smarter, holier, better than you. But it could be that God has placed in you the kinds of gifts, talents, brainpower and favor that he wants to use in leading people to extend his Kingdom in this world.

If God is calling you to leadership, submit your life to him. Then, if he chooses, let God make you great in the eyes of those you would lead.

Going Deeper: When you evaluate the spiritual leader whom God has placed over your life, make sure this is the chief indicator of their greatness: their consuming passion is to make Jesus famous. If it isn’t, seriously pray for that leader. If it is, thank God for them, and do everything you can to affirm their leadership.

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You Are God’s Harvester of Souls

Lost People Matter to God - They Should Matter to Us, Too!

SYNOPSIS: There is a very real harvest of human souls that will spend somewhere in eternity—either heaven or hell. To the Lord of the harvest, the in-gathering of these unsaved souls is his primary “business,” if you will. Moreover, the Lord of the harvest has recruited you and me into his field to do the harvesting of these souls on his behalf. All that to say, since lost people matter that much to God, they must matter that deeply to us as well! As Elton Trueblood observed, winning souls “is not a professional job for a few trained men, but is instead the unrelenting responsibility of every person who belongs to the company of Jesus.”

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Matthew 9:37-3

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest”

This verse represents a clear view into the compassionate heart of a seeking God, and more than anything, it reveals the compelling core of his very being.

Moreover, Jesus’s words remind us that there is a very real harvest of human souls that will spend somewhere in eternity—either heaven or hell. And being Lord of the harvest, it tells us that the gathering in of these unsaved souls is God’s primary business, if you will.

Finally, it tells us that we are those he has brought into his field to do the harvesting of these souls. In other words, you are God’s harvester!

All that to say, lost people must matter to us because they matter to God!

John 3:16, the most compelling of all the verses in the Bible, is compelling for a reason. It reminds us, in no uncertain terms, that the salvation of the lost, both near and far, both next door and across the ocean, is the driving conviction of God’s being:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Now if lost people matter that deeply to God—enough to send His only Son to die for us—they ought to matter deeply to us as well. And that is a critical issue since, as Christian author Jacquelyn Heasley puts it,

How we believe God perceives people determines how we will respond to them.

Every time you see the face of another human being, you’re seeing a soul that’s so loved by God that he sent his Son to die for their redemption—illegals crossing the southern border, the homeless camping along the interstate, anarchist breaking windows downtown, your next-door neighbor who won’t cut his grass. They matter to a missionary God and crossing international borders as well as our own comfort to reach them with his love is called missions. So, they need to matter deeply to us as well.

So reaching them with the Good News of salvation and the free gift of eternal life is the mission of God that has been assigned to you and me. In that sense, you and I are missionaries—albeit to our next-door neighbor, or to our classmate at the next desk over, or to our coworker in the cubicle next to us.

May I implore you to not only memorize this verse this week but to see it from a whole new perspective from now on? Let it remind you of the ripe harvest all around you. Let it give you a clear and constant view into the very heart of the seeking Father. And let it shake you to the core that God is depending on you to be the gatherer in his great harvest of souls.

May this be the compelling call that transforms you into a Christ-follower who has become intensely missionary. Henry Martyn, the nineteenth-century Anglican missionary to India who died, incidentally, at the age of thirty-one bringing the Gospel to Iran, said:

The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.”

God help you, and God help me, to become intensely missionary!

Reflect and Apply: Perhaps a prayer today is in order. Ask God to help you to see lost people as he does. Ask him to give you his heart for those who don’t know him and are, therefore, headed for a Christless eternity. And ask him to use you to influence someone to him today. And remember, he hears your prayers.

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The One Thing You Will Never Regret

Put Your Confidence in God

SYNOPSIS: Whenever you step forward in faith, God will do the rest: rivers will part, dry land will appear, walls will fall, enemies will flee, the sun will stand still, and the Land of Promise will become your Land of Possession. You will never regret putting your trust in the Lord.

The Journey // Focus: Joshua 5:1

When all the Amorite kings …and all the Canaanite kings…heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, they lost heart and were paralyzed with fear because of them.

Contrast this to the story in Numbers 13-14 when the 12 spies returned from surveying Canaan. Ten of them brought a negative report, and it was the people of Israel who lost heart and were paralyzed with fear.

But the ten spies said, “We can’t attack those people; they’re way stronger than we are.” They spread scary rumors among the People of Israel. They said, “We scouted out the land from one end to the other—it’s a land that swallows people whole. Everybody we saw was huge. Why, we even saw the Nephilim giants (the Anak giants come from the Nephilim). Alongside them we felt like grasshoppers. And they looked down on us as if we were grasshoppers.” The whole community was in an uproar, wailing all night long. All the People of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The entire community was in on it: “Why didn’t we die in Egypt? Or in this wilderness? Why has God brought us to this country to kill us? Our wives and children are about to become plunder. Why don’t we just head back to Egypt? And right now!” Soon they were all saying it to one another: “Let’s pick a new leader; let’s head back to Egypt.” (Numbers 13:31-14:4, MSG)

What a lost opportunity—if only they had remained faithful to God and confident in his call, the same story that the Israelites experienced in Joshua 5 would have been theirs. That same race of giants, the Nephilim, that made the Israelites feel like grasshoppers were now the ones who were feeling small:

Their hearts sank; the courage drained out of them just thinking about the People of Israel. (Joshua 5:1, MSG)

Joshua 5 could have occurred forty years earlier and the people Moses led out of Egypt would have entered their Promised Land. Instead, they forfeited the promises of God for death in the wilderness because of fear and disobedience. Untold numbers of people died over four decades with the most disheartening words in the library of human language on their lips: if only. What might have been had they just trusted the God who had led them.

Fortunately, the next generation learned a very difficult lesson at their parent’s expense. They witnessed the unbelief of their fathers and mothers, and the harsh consequences of shrinking back in fear, and they determined that while there might be other sins, that particular one would not be theirs. They stepped forward in faith, and behold, God did the rest: rivers parted, dry land appeared, walls fell, enemies fled, the sun stood still, and the Land of Promise became the Land of Possession.

No one has ever regretted trusting God. Obedience to the call of the Lord has never left a person disappointed. No one who has followed God has ever been abandoned by God. No one who stepped out to put God’s promises to the test has ever died with “what might have been if I had just NOT trusted God so much” on their lips. As the prophet said in Jeremiah 17:7-8,

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”

Trust God completely, and you will live a full life of no regrets!

Going Deeper: Trust God! Whatever is before you today, walk into it with confidence. If you are obeying God, he is not only with you, he is before you.