Dry Ground
Make room today for God to do the miraculous and you will see great and mighty things done by the hand of God.
“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river...See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.”
Joshua 3:1, 5, 7-8, 11, 14-17
Joshua is a man on a mission. He has a dream of delivering the people to the promised land. What does wisdom does God give Joshua so that he can find success? Does God tell him to map out the journey, study reports, gain more knowledge, acquire more supplies? No. God says make room in your heart. Purify yourself. Consecrate yourself today for tomorrow you will see great things. What would you do to make sure you had everything you needed for the journey? Would you start with prayer and make sure your heart was right? God wanted to teach Joshua then and wants to teach us now that the best thing you can do to be equipped for your calling is to make room for more of His presence.
What derails dreams as much as any other barrier? Procrastination and pointing fingers. The opposite of purifying yourself today is putting off until tomorrow what you know needs to be done today. The bible consistently teaches us that there is blessing on the other side of sacrifice. If you want to get in shape, you have to start today. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step today. What have you been putting off that you know you should do. The root word of the disciple of Jesus is discipline. It is the daily habit of consecrating yourself. Doing the next right thing you know to do today so that you can see your dreams come true tomorrow.
The enemy of your life wants to tell you to wait until tomorrow. Start your diet tomorrow. Start reading the bible tomorrow. You can miss today, just go next week. Satan knows that if he can just get you to sit out today the sacrifice that will lead to blessing that more often than not it will be easier to get you to sit out the next spiritual practice. God calls us to do our best today. Not tomorrow, not next week, today is the day the Lord has made. Can you think of a time you accomplished a goal you had set? Did it not have an origin point, a point of decision? God says decide today that you will do what I say and you will see dreams you never thought possible come to pass.
Joshua was taught one other simple lesson by the Lord. The lesson is that change starts with you. Do you want to better marriage, better relationships, or better community? Change starts with you. You are called to be the change you want to see in the world. It is really easy to point fingers and tell other people how they should change. Jesus that we need to first remove the log in our eyes so that we can see clearly. God says the same thing in this passage. If you want to see the miraculous happen in your life then you need to make a change. For some people it may be a change in thinking; for others change may be patterns of behavior. What change is God calling you to make today?
“He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare. I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart."
Psalms 40:3-5, 8, 16-17
Davis makes a decision. He chooses to trust God with his life. David had it good. He was a king. He had servants, power, money, and possessions. David could do what he wanted, when he wanted to do it. But, David did not want to be the same man the next year that he had been the previous year. David wanted to see God move and he did not want to settle for less than the best that God had planned for him. He could never imagined that as he consecrated his heart while tending sheep that God would make him a king. He could never have known that as he fought off lions and bears that God was preparing Him to be a mighty warrior. Every great blessing that David received had an origin in a decision he had made to consecrate himself at an earlier time.
David praises God for the new song. He sings a song of trust. What does that mean to you? Where do you need to trust God with an outcome or another person? David is singing about what God will do, but has not yet done. That is what it means to sing a song of trust. He says blessed is the one who learns to sing the song of trust. What do you think changed for David and why does he sing this way? David has found that every day is better when he listens to and lives for God that day. David has learned to be a disciple and to live a disciplined life. He found that he could not out give Goda. He learned that the more room he made for the Almighty, the more miracles he saw. Do you want to see miracles happen in your life? Make room today for more of the Maker of Miracles.
“God gives some people wealth, possessions and honor, so that they lack nothing their hearts desire, but God does not grant them the ability to enjoy them, and strangers enjoy them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil. Everyone’s toil is for their mouth, yet their appetite is never satisfied. Whatever exists has already been named, and what humanity is has been known; no one can contend with someone who is stronger. For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few and meaningless days they pass through like a shadow? Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?”
Ecclesiastes 6:2, 7, 10, 12
Solomon has seen people who have soured on life. He has seen people who materially had everything but never experienced meaning in anything. Can you relate? Can you think of the time you just had to have that new possession only to realize that it did not satisfy the longing in your soul? Our world teaches us to always want more. It teaches us to crave and envy. All of the advertising we see makes us feel like we do not have enough today and we need to chase after more. Is this what God teaches? Absolutely not. Solomon says you can get what you want but that will never give you what you need.
God gives you everything you need. Think about the times in our lives that we felt most at peace, experienced the most joy, and felt the most meaning. Were those not the times we spent in community with friends or family? The life of those who follow Jesus learn to give thanks for what they have not what they do not have. Following Christ is more about contentment and character change than acquiring more of what culture celebrates. What is one thing that you could give up wanting so that you could make room today to be a greater blessing to someone else tomorrow?
“All their kings fall, and none of them calls on me. Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak about me falsely. I trained them and strengthened their arms, but they plot evil against me.”
Hosea 7:7, 13, 15
Jesus said that He came that all people would find abundant life through Him. Truth tells us the things that can get in the way of our success. In Hosea, the truth is that destruction comes from rebellion. How does this apply to Joshua and to us? Rebellion is not an absence of knowing the truth. Rebellion comes when we know the truth but choose to do the opposite.
Rebellion is choosing the things in life that give me pleasure today over the eternal purposes that God has for my life. It is the opposite of consecration or purification. Rebellion says I will not delay gratification, I want what I want now. It is a companion of the fool of procrastination. Immediate pleasure and putting off the truth inevitably leads to destruction. Destruction is the natural outcome of knowing what to do, but not doing it.
“The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
1 Timothy 1:3-6, 12-17
Paul shares three key aspects of his life that have turned him from the worst sinner to kingdom servant. What are the ways in which Paul consecrated his life? His says by purifying his heart, clearing his conscience, and fortifying his faith. Let's dive deeper into each of these and see how they relate back to the same word that God gave Joshua to consecrate today.
Pure heart. Jesus said blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. How do we purify our hearts? We start with honesty about the desires of our hearts. Are we desiring closer devotion to God or desiring things of the world?
Good conscience. How do we measure good? The world will tell you that it is whatever makes you happy. The bible will teach you that it is coming into alignment with God's ways and character. How can we grow in this? Ask God to reveal if there is anywhere in your life that you are believing something that is not true. A good conscience comes when our actions align with God's truth.
Sincere faith. The core idea is an authentic faith. This is the difference between religion and a living relationship with Jesus. You can feel the difference as your actions flow out of a grateful heart that desires to respond to God's love with an overflowing heart of love to others. If you are doing what you are doing for God out of obligation not opportunity then you might want to reconsider the roots of your faith. Everything Paul did was in response to the grace and mercy he had received.
Jesus told us the same thing that God told Joshua. Make room today for the Holy Spirit and you will see the miraculous happen in your life. In John 14, Jesus said you will do greater things than I have done. Do you believe this? Joshua might not have believed he would cross the Jordan on dry ground, but he did. You have no idea of the miracles that God wants to work in, through, and for you. You are not meant to know because God wants you to learn to live like David and celebrate what He is going to do before He even does it. Is there anything that God cannot do? No. David said it best. No good thing does God withhold from those whose walk is blameless. So consecrate yourself and get ready to see how Jesus Christ is going to give you a new, miraculous song to sing.