This is What the Lord Will Do - Joshua 10:24-25

Scariness is scary. Being afraid is frightening. Those may sound redundant, repetitive, and elementary. However, no matter how basic, it is true. When you are in the middle of something that constitutes you being scared, it is scary. You don't know how you are going to get through the situation. Being scared usually renders you being powerless to the situation.

Think of the parent who sits in the waiting room anticipating the success of the "experimental procedure". Think of the individual who just got laid off after working in the company for 15 years. Think of the elderly woman who is being surrounded by a group of young men asking for her purse. Think of the person who runs off the road in the middle of a blizzard, their car won't start and a window is broken letting in the cold air. Think of those who have fallen victim to hijacking.

The list of scary situations could go on and on. However, each situation is just plain scary. When you are in those situations you are essentially powerless.

There were times when the Israelites, and their leader, Joshua, were also scared. They were scared going into battle. Joshua was scared taking over the responsibilities of leading all these people, where Moses had once led.

Yesterday, we began a series on the book of Joshua. Though there was fright on the part of Joshua and the people, God wanted them to know to be "strong and courageous". That is one of our biggest messages to take from this first lesson, but here are a few more applications to choose from to use this week...

1. Prayer ~ Before you go into battle, pray. While you are in battle, pray. When you are anticipating battle, pray. When you are discouraged, pray. When you are scared, pray. Prayer has so many uses...use it!
2. Look Forward to the Victory ~ If you knew you were going to coast to a championship, would you be as concerned about the game/event? You would probably be so relaxed that you "wouldn't care", so you may tend to be a bit overconfident, etc. Overconfidence in God is great! You get to anticipate the victories! God will give them to you! Look for them!
3. Do Not Be Afraid ~ Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)
4. Re-Read #3 many times ~ We need to know that God will take care of us and give us the victories. We need reminded!
5. Look for God in Your "Battles" ~ Keep your eyes open to what possibilities God is presenting you with this week as you have different encounters.

It is important that we understand that when you are walking with Him and trying to do His will, you and God make a majority. It is important when it comes to battles you encounter as you go through each day.

I can't promise that there will never be anything that happens physically to you. However, the Bible does show us that God is with us as we go through life. He will take care of us as we try to live for Him. It may not always be physical, but we will be taken care of, despite the earthly hardships.

You may never see "what the Lord will do" but the reassurance that comes through the book of Joshua is awesome. I get so excited to see what God can do when I walk with Him!

Looking for the opportunities in the battles...

Living Wide Awake: Focus

When do you find yourself having the most difficult time to focus? Is it when you are approaching a deadline? Is it when your kids are screaming around the house? Is it when you take too much on? Is it when there is noise, in general, going on that is not pertaining to the task you are trying to accomplish? Is it when things just aren't going your way (i.e. in a slump, crises, etc.)?

Focusing is important to getting something accomplished. When you have an idea (aka dream) and are following through with the idea, you have to focus in order to be able to bring it to completion. So you dream, put your confidence in Him, and focus. Notice that these are all things you must do - you have to be active. Living wide awake means that you are active in doing different things.

As I've said, too often, Christians, "sleep" in between church assembly times. Other things are on such a priority list that being a Christian is something you do "on Sundays". But living wide awake means that you are an "awake" Christian every chance you get.

Yesterday, we looked at the concept of focus. Keeping focused on Him, as we dream, is vital to accomplishing our goal. Here are some applications to choose from to use this week...

1. Don't look down - Peter started walking on the water and looked down - Fright loses focus - This climbing phrase holds true when you are trying to accomplish anything of magnitude. Don't let your fears of getting higher, on the accomplishment scale, cause you to look down and see all that you've overcome and then get discouraged.
2. Keep focused on Him - That goes along with last week's word of confidence (in Him) - Everything you should be dreaming of doing is for His glory, not for anything to do with you.
3. Keep the Son close - Jesus' parents had an instance where they failed to keep their son, the Son, close to them, so when they left the feast, they didn't have Jesus with them. They were a days journey away before they realized that no one in their company of friends and family knew where he was. As you go through the day, don't forget to keep Him close to you and your daily events. Don't let Him so far away as to wonder where he is at in your life!
4. Keep Your Dreams Accountable - When you write down a dream, ask someone to hold you accountable for trying to do all that you can to make sure the dream is accomplished. This way, even if you slack a bit, you will have a friendly and humble reminder to keep working on it.
5. Rid the Noise - You may not have to cut something out completely, but you may need to turn off outside responsibilities once in a while to help make sure you are working on what you wrote down as your dream.
6. Praise God for the Accomplishments - As you go through life living wide awake you will notice that God is working. You may not see it right away because you aren't used to looking for Him in your every day. However, even if you look back and realize that God showed up in an unlikely place, give God the glory and tell Him "Thanks" for using you in that situation.
   

A friend of mine enjoys looking for God to show up in the media. From the time I learned of this interest, I started focusing in on shows to see when God shows up. Last Monday, on an episode of "How I Met Your Mother", God showed up (and not in an put-down-religion way). If you are not familiar with the show, here's a short synopsis. Three friends are sitting around a table, when another comes over, bragging he was just given a girls phone number. They discuss that there is a "three day rule" where you should not call her before three days. "Not the three day rule...that is stupid...who even came up with that?" are the comments that follow. The answer, Jesus. He was dead for three days before he waited to come out to reveal Himself. Hence, the reason to wait three days. There is much dialogue that goes on regarding this situation. I personally found the dialogue humorous. He wasn't poking fun at Jesus, but trying to prove his dating theory. Regardless, "Jesus" was spoken several times and the event that they were speaking of was a real event - the resurrection. I was impressed how God showed up. However, if you don't focus on looking for Him to show up in the media, you could have missed the greatness of this situation.

If you aren't focused your frazzled. If you are frightened you're going to lose focus. If you dream, you're going to look higher and when you get there, don't look down! You'll be amazed at how high God can take you when you team up and see what you can do together in your every day!

Focusing on Him in my every day...

A New Found...Fear - Acts 2:43

The summer I turned 16 I had a new driver's dream job. Maybe dream might be a bit extreme, but I was so excited about the opportunity to get to detail and drive brand new cars by working at a car dealership. Each time I sat in the driver's seat of the cars, whether they were new or used, I was a bit nervous. Partly because I had not been driving too long and the other part was because the cars were not mine. I had a sense of fear of damaging them, but yet I was excited to drive these new cars. For a bit of trivia, the Chevrolet Beretta had come out that year - if you want to know my approximate age.

That feeling of fear mixed with excitement is what I think might have been in the minds of the early church as they began their life as "Christ's Church". Below are some applications to choose from to apply from our lesson yesterday as we continued with our look at the early church...

1. We tend to like to tell others when we have bought something new. It is really easy to share about the item. Is your life in Christ new? If so, it should be easy to share. If you're like me, it has been a few years since you "put on Christ", however the sheer impact that it has made on your life should be never fading. Rekindle your memories of the past when you "put on Christ" and stoke the embers to create a flame to cause you to want to share with others.
   
2. One thing that creates a sense of "old" is routine. Our churches are full of routine and tradition. It can be good but it can also be bad. If you are a church leader, specifically, try to bring about something in your assembly (be it each week or once a month) that is a bit out of the ordinary. Something with an edifying goal, but that would be a break in the routine. I doubt the early church had a routine.
   
3. If you are not as involved as you could be, is it as a result of fear? Allow that fear to fuel you instead of fizzling you. Allow it to be a mission that you decide to take on - which is not impossible. Go ahead and try it out...you may like it. Join a group, talk to that person, share Jesus, use your talents, etc.
   

The early church had a lot for us to look at and learn from. If you are involved with a church, examine what they experienced to stoke the fire in your congregation. If you are not involved with a church, the early church was nothing like what we find in most groups on Sunday mornings across America. This was an excited, yet fearful, group of people who just wanted to get together to worship God, the Father of Jesus, whom they recently put on the cross. They were community changers - and God added to their number daily (Acts 2:47).

Have an excitedly scared week!

Approaching things with nervousness...