When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?” “Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the LORD’s army.” At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to do?” [Joshua 5.13-14]
There is a popular Christian song out currently subtitled "Fight My Battles." I know sometimes I "split hairs" unnecessarily, but I must use this song today for contrast to what Joshua experienced in the passage above...
When the commander of the LORD's army told Joshua he was neither friend or foe, we must understand what he meant! While we might try to dissect every word for meaning and study what history tells us about the times and culture contemporary to this event, we might also simply glean from Joshua's response the meaning of what was said.
At being told that the commander of the LORD's army was neither friend or foe, Joshua immediately humbled and submitted himself to an agenda outside his own. It did not matter whether or not the commander was friend or foe - what mattered from that point forward was that Joshua was submitted to whatever the commander's agenda was! The commander did not come to fight Joshua's battles! Instead, the commander of the LORD's armies came to see if Joshua would join in the LORD's battles!
My takeaway is that I should not at all seek the LORD to join me in my battles, but instead I should be fully submitted to His battles! There is a difference.
How much time and energy do believers today waste coercing God to join them in fighting their battles instead of exerting that time and energy in joining God in His battles?
Again, there IS a difference! Whose agenda are we on anyway?
Father, forgive me for trying to enlist You and Your Kingdom power to fight "my" battles. Father, I want to humbly and thoroughly submit myself to Your battles! Show me YOUR ways O LORD, teach me YOUR paths...
1 comment:
So inspiring brother this is one of my fave’s for a while now. Your so right we are all a bit selfish and need called on it. We tend to get carried away with the teachings of the world. That’s one of the reasons we need each other to keep us in check when we are off base a bit. How often do we go to the Lord in reverence and thanksgiving? Or with only worship and praise on our lips? We most often go to the Lord with need or desire or petty wants of our flesh. We are generally concerned about our lil tiny corn of the cosmos and don’t even try to see the universal eternal picture that God deals with. He finished His work what are we doing? We need help showing us how to humble ourselves and we must go to the Lord in complete submission and humility.
Now don’t get me wrong here brother I know this is not who we all are all the time and I’m not saying this is the only way we go to God, but we do, do this too often. We all need a reality check brother! Where is our minds at? Where’s our focus? Who’s our focus? Self or God? We must dig deep sometimes. Repentance should be continually on our lips.
A battle is coming here and now. The war is here! We must give our countenance to Him and settle into a humble submission to the Father. Take our eyes off the world and look to Him to get our eye on eternity.
Thank you Father for allowing brother Greg to help us understand and encourage all you have for us every day. Thank you Greg for being obedient and helping us to grow more and more by your inspirational words of wisdom. We give you all of who we are Father.
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