Wednesday Devotion 8-19-20 6 Minutes

Good evening everyone watching by video this evening,,, it's time for our weekly devotion.

Our reading this evening comes from Joshua 3:14-17

14 When the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of the people. 15 Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge 16 and the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass that extended as far as Adam, a city next to Zarethan. The water flowing downstream into the Sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea) was completely cut off, and the people crossed opposite Jericho. 17 The priests carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord,,, as we begin this evening,,, with all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

The scripture came about because I was reading Bob Lytle's devotion that he post on Facebook every day since his retirement and when he mentioned this part of the scripture it reminded me that when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea,,, the waters were parted first,,, then the people went across,,, compared to the priest having to step into the flooding waters first to cross the Jordan in the scriptures I just read.

So many times in my life,,, I've had to decide whether I was going to step out in faith when the way is obvious,,, as when the Israelites crossed the Red Sea,,, and other times,,, I've had to step out in faith when the way was not clear,,, like the Priest having to step into the waters of the flooded Jordan.

We are called by God to be obedient and that is hard when the way isn't clear or obvious.

When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea,,, the waters were parted and the way forward wasn't so hard to go through,,, I mean,,, really that was the only way that they could go,,, considering the Egyptian army was behind them.

But when they crossed the Jordan River,,, not only had the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the desert before this,,, but when it became time to cross,,, it was at flood stage too.

Then,,, Joshua tells the priest to step into the water and then they will be able to cross over.

Without faith,,, this would have been an impossible crossing.

It required faith because the waters don't stop flowing until the priest make that first step into the water,,, with the Ark of the Covenant.

This could have been a disaster if they had slipped.

So many times we are told by God to step out in faith,,, but all we are able to see are the obstacles that are in front of us.

We don't see that we serve such a mighty God that can do anything that needs to be done.

We have a tendency to limit God with our human views of what can be accomplished instead of responding with faith as we are commanded by God.

This limit is replayed over and over in our daily lives when we don't listen to the Holy Spirit when it tells us to do something that we think is impossible.

How quickly we forget the words of Jesus when He said that "With men this is impossible,,, but with God all things are possible!" (Matthew 19:26)

We need to stop focusing on God's commands with our human perspectives and concentrate on His power that is available to us when we are faithful and do as the priest,,, and take that first step!

A lot of times,,, that first step leads to miraculous endings,,, but we will never see them,,, without that first step of faith!