We’re just a couple of weeks from beginning a new weekend series called, The Joshua Project. What we will be doing is looking at selected passages (stories) in the first six chapters of Joshua to see what lessons we can learn about Promised Land living. It should be a great study.
One of the things that I have noticed over the years is the tendency that we all sometimes have to make excuses for our lives rather than take responsibility for our lives. A classic example of this can be found in the familiar parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-30. In this parable Jesus talked about a man who went on a journey but left three different servants with varying amounts of talents (5 -2 -1). The first two servants put their talents to work and doubled them so that when the man returned, he was able to celebrate their efforts. The third servant, I’m sure you remember, simply buried his talent in the ground. When the man returned, he presented him with what he had been given along with an excuse (I know you are a hard man so I was afraid of losing your talent). As a result, the talent was taken from the third servant, and he was thrown “into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25:30).
How many of us live our lives with no results but plenty of excuses? Part of the good news of God’s Word is that we don’t have to live this way, in part, because we are not alone. When God gives us a responsibility or a challenge, He also gives us Himself as our number one resource. When Moses died and God gave Joshua the responsibility of leading His people into The Promised Land, He said to him in Joshua 1:5, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you or forsake you.” (NIV) Now that promise wasn’t exclusive to Joshua and the challenge before him. This is a promise that God gives to all believers.
You can take ownership and responsibility for your life and leave all of your excuses behind today. You can face the giant or mountain or whatever it is in your life that’s keeping you from experiencing God’s best today. You can be a leader today. You can accomplish whatever goal and realize whatever dream you have today. You can do it if you remember that God will be with you, the same God who parted the Red Sea and multiplied a handful of fish and loaves to feed thousands. But you also need to remember that God expects you to do your part. Here’s a simple truth to remember about your relationship with God. God will do the God things, and we have to do the people things.
Identify the challenge(s) in your life today, take the first step, and remember that you are never alone.
Jesus cares,
Pastor Chris
