Live Like Joshua

     

"Joshua stood before all the people of Israel and said to the Lord:
  "Sun, stand still over Gibeon.
       Moon, stand still over the Valley of Aijalon."
  So the sun stood still,
       and the moon stopped
       until the people defeated their enemies.   

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and waited to go down for a full day." Joshua 10:12-14

 

 When I read this passage for the first time, it was in a book called "Sun Stand Still" by Steven Furtick. The book focuses on living audaciously, and challenges us to step outside our comfort zones and ask God to do the impossible. The book is fantastic, and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone, but there's an even greater message the lies in that single passage above, than could be described in any two-hundred page novel.

     

       Take a moment and transport yourself back in time, to the setting of this scene. Five armies are against your own, and a full victory is seeming more and more out of reach. As the evening approached, the leader, Joshua knew that when the night fell, their victory over the promised land would come to a close. This is where audacious faith kicks in. Joshua took this opportunity, infront of all his people, to muster up all the courage he had left and deliver one of the most amazing, unorthodox prayers in the entire bible. He asked God to make the sun stand still in the sky! To freeze time on behalf of the people that he lead into battle!

       To many, it seems utterly impossible. To me, however, it is absolutely incredible. I give Joshua two thumbs up and a huge round of applause for his courage. But this passage does make me wonder, like most things normally do - what happened to audacious faith?

       When I first read this story, the skeptic in me picked it apart, and began whispering things like "that could never happen now", and "Joshua was special. There's no way something like that could happen to you". But as my eyes scanned the page, I came across something that captured my attention. Just four verses before the climax, we are let in on the secret of Joshua's confidence:

The Lord said to Joshua, "Don't be afraid of those armies, because I will hand them over to you. None of them will be able to stand against you."

       Joshua had a secret weapon, that took everyone by surprise. And the greatest part about it is that that secret weapon is still alive today, casting out our fears and ensuring that no army will be able to stand against us. God is just waiting for us to act audacioulsy. He is God of the universe, and there is NOTHING He can't do. So why restrict ourselves to bedtime prayers and Sunday mornings? 

       What would it look like, in our society, to see the Joshua's emerge in all of us? What would happen if we decided - as an individual, a family, a church, a nation - to activate our audacious faith, challenge God to do the impossible, and pray our own "Sun Stand Still" prayers?

      I know, without a doubt, that it would be incredible. We would find ourselves caught in the middle of a movement. We would initiate change and begin to stir up the hearts of everyone around us. 

       Expect the impossible. Believe in the miracle. Live like Joshua.

               

 " The world is waiting for change. God's people are the change the world is waiting for."