Devotions
When Moses died, God gave Joshua the responsibility of leading the children of Israel to the promised land. This was a frightening prospect for Joshua for a couple of reasons. He was going to be leading a stubborn people. They had demonstrated this stubborn streak in the wilderness under Moses’ leadership (Exodus 14:11-12), and he was going to be leading them into unfamiliar enemy territory. Put simply, Joshua had no clue what he was doing.
This year Christmas comes at a very complicated time in our nation and in our lives. The COVID-19 virus is still raging, with the Omicron and Delta variants threatening our Christmas festivities, hospitals are close to 100% full with sick patients, medical workers and teachers are stretched to breaking point, chain supply issues are far from over, school violence is a constant threat to our children and is affecting them mentally and emotionally, natural disasters like tornadoes and typhoons are making their presence known and devastating homes along their paths, the political climate has gone from bad to insane…need I go on? One might be forgiven for thinking this is not a time for celebration. One might be forgiven for thinking that life is completely hopeless right now.
Do you live in a state of constant expectation that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he says, he will do? This appears to be the way the disciples in Acts 9:37-38 lived. In the face of what most humans would consider IMPOSSIBLE, they exhibited outrageous faith; the kind of faith that anticipates the inevitable intervention of the Almighty God. The kind of faith that is completely surrendered to the will of God, whatever that may be. They displayed the kind of faith that invites ridicule.
