Life Is a Class in Character Building – Part Two

Joshua 1: 8, 9

We are what we are because of what we do with our opportunities.

Can you imagine the emotions and apprehension of young Joshua that night in Egypt when the death angel passed through the land and he was helping his parents pack for the trip into the unknown?  Nevertheless, he was faithful.

Think of how he must have felt on the shores of the moaning Red Sea as the army of Pharaoh pressed in on them, still he was faithful.

As one of the spies sent into the land of promise, he observed there would be adversaries; and while faint-hearted companions cowered, still he was faithful.

Faithfulness today is as rare as an albino peacock.

Be faithful.  You never know what God is using present circumstances to prepare you for. The aloe plant blooms once every 100 years, but every hour of that century is needed to prepare it for that moment of blossoming.

Remember, Jesus said we should labor with such faithfulness that it might be said of us, “You have been faithful over a few things.  I will make you ruler of many.” Faith is trusting God even when you have no reason to.

“Faith, might faith, the promise sees.
Looking to God alone
Laughs at impossibilities,
And shouts, ‘It shall be done.’”

God not only isn’t against you or even neutral about you, He is enthusiastically for you.

Memorize this verse from Sidney Lanier’s poem, “The Marshes of Glenn.”:
“As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God:
I will fly in the greatness of God as a marsh-hen flies
In the freedom that fills all the space ‘twixt the
marsh and the skies:
By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod
I will heartily lay me a-hold on the greatness of God.”

Joshua uses the expression “the Lord your God.”  Lord translates the Hebrew name JEHOVAH which the ancient Jews reverenced so much they would not even articulate it.  God translates the word ELOHIM which is used for God 2,555 times in the O.T. It was plural for ELOHA. Elohim not only speaks of the trinity, but helps reveal the character of God.  It is a reference to the limitless increase of His power and glory.  It meant the mighty one.  It was to show that not even 10,000 other god’s were equal to Him.  This is the God who is present with you.

The God who conquered Canna is the God who is for you.