“Answer me quickly, O Lord! My spirit fails! Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” (Psalm 143:7-10 ESV)
The weight of the world awakens me in the middle of the night. It is dark and the weight seems heavier than I can ever bear. I pray for peace. The Lord answers.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9 ESV)
Rahab must have been afraid to help the two spies. She was taking a big risk. But she knew that the Lord was on their side.
“Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built in the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. And she said to them, ‘Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way.” (Joshua 2:15-16 ESV)
Rahab took a risk and helped men who could not repay her. Jesus talks about this in the parable of the banquet.
“He said also to the man who had invited him, ‘When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid a the resurrection of the just.” (Luke 14:12-14 ESV)
These life lessons that the Lord teaches us are important not only for us, but for generations to come. People, especially our children, should know who we belong to by how we live. We should be a living testimony to God’s faithfulness. Joshua instructed the Israelites to put out twelve stones to remember this.
“And he said to the people of Israel, ‘When your children ask their fathers in times to come, what do these stones mean? then you shall let your children know, Israel passed over this Jordon on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordon for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.” (Joshua 4:21-24 ESV)
As we remember and celebrate our Lord’s death and resurrection this week, may we show the world who He is and what He did for us.
~Kellie
Sixty-six books in a year 