Sat.’s Devo - God’s Strategy

Read Josh. 5:1-7:15, Luke 15:1-32, Ps. 81:1-16, Pr. 13:1 When God does something supernatural for us, we feel so strengthen in the Lord and the devil’s camp is scared of us. Faith is the strongest weapon against fear. Their enemies heard of what God did at the Jordan river and they were too scared to face the Israelites. I love that we can make the devil afraid to face us! Right after that miracle, God told them to circumcise the people. This brought pain and caused them to have to wait till they were healed. So, God moves in a big way, then we are put through a purification process that is painful and causes us to have to wait. We need to be emptied out of ourselves and the past so we can carry the new victory into our future. That process is both painful and slow. This is where we tend to get discouraged but if we realize it is part of the process we can rejoice! This is where God rolls away the shame of our past. God renamed the place Gilgal which means “roll away”. God was taking away the shame of being slaves in Egypt and all the humiliation and pain. They got to eat bread made from the wheat of the promised land and the day they ate from their new provision, the manna stopped. The manna had been God’s promise of a land flowing with milk and honey. Now they could eat these fruits themselves. Before they got to Jericho, Joshua met a man with a drawn sword. When Joshua asked if he was on their side or the enemies, he said neither - he was a commander in the Lord’s army. It is a revelation that God is not against anyone. He is for his plan for His creation and against His enemy - the devil. This man came with a message for Joshua. It was God’s strategy to fight the nation of Jericho. Joshua followed it to a tee and they won. Lord, you tell us in today’s Psalms that if we would just listen to You and do Your ways, then You would quickly subdue our enemies. May we be wise sons who heed our father’s instructions.