Are We On God's Side?Joshua 5:13-14
|
Often we think of God being on our side. Sometimes as we look at situations we wonder if it He is. Paul makes clear that, yes, God is on our side. He is for us. He is working for our ultimate good whether we can see it or not.
I believe through, a more important question is: Are we on God's side? Joshua was preparing for his first big battle in the New Land. As he was walking alone pondering the battle plan and related topics he saw an unrecognized armed man. He demanded, "Are you for us or against us." The answer he got was basically, "I'm neither for you nor against you. I am for the Lord of Hosts."
Notice Joshua didn't argue about it. He did not say, "What are you going to do for me?" It is the child-level or immature Christian who is always looking for what they can get and resentful of having to give anything. [There is nothing wrong with being a child if we are growing - we all go from babyhood to adulthood - the problem is if we stop growing and become 40-year old babies.] We need to grow beyond that and look at the big picture. We need to get on God's side to expand His kingdom on earth.
We need to take time to learn God's heart, God's plans, and what He wants to accomplish in our lives, in the part of the world we touch, and in the world at large. Israel's traveling in the wilderness was a time of immaturity with all their needs being supplied by God without them really having to do much. Canaan was different. The manna stopped at Canaan's border. God still provided but it was different. Now they were growing up. Now they had to take responsibility. It was still God's plan but it required a different level of maturity from them.
If we want to possess our Promised Land, then we are going to have to grow up and take responsibility. We are going to have to think bigger than ourselves. We are going to have to catch God's vision, a vision the includes a world in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ before His Second Coming. We often limit God...let's take the limits off and let God be God. Let's stop trying to give the orders and start taking them. God is on our side...are we on God's side?
