God seems to delight in giving us, or allowing things to happen, that only He can overcome. Perhaps you are facing a difficult issue and know the ritght thing to do, but shrink back from doing it because you know it’s too hard for you. And perhaps you’re correct; it is too hard for you-alone.
Life is difficult, and we face all kinds of challenges in our families, finances, health, and work. God knows all this. And He knows you need help in making the best of the situation you face. You may feell like you are alone, but you are not because God wants to see you grow through facing your problems. And, best of all, He will be with you in those God-sized problems that require a big God.
Today, I want us to look at a couple things God said to Joshua about the God-sized task He had given him. Moses has died, and the mantle of leadership has been placed on Joshua’s shoulders. https://www.cosdavis.com/its-going-to-happen-finally/ will update you on the status of the job Joshua has been given. It’s hard for me to imagine the sense of inadequacy Joshua must have felt, the overwhelming burden that lay before him. He had watched Moses and the anguish and heartache he had endured, but he had never really experienced the pressure Moses felt until now. No man, on his own, could possibly do what God was telling him to do. So, what does God say to him about his God-sized task?
What is it that God has told Joshua to do? What is this God-sized task to which he must give his life and strength to accomplish? He is to finish what Moses started, to conquer the pagan inhabitants of the land God had promised to give to Abraham when He called him to be the father of the nation through which all the world would be blessed. That was a wonderful idea, but one that would require complete devotion and determination of the person on whose shoulders it fell.
Do you recall how Moses’ responded to that call when God encountered him from the blazing bush on Mount Sinai? Moses was very reluctant, even argumentative about what the Lord was proposing. “Who me, a fugative from Egypt, go to Pharaoh and demand that he release the slaves who have been suppporting the Egyptian economy for hundreds of years?” And after all the arguing and excuses, Moses relented and accepted the God-sized task because of something God said to him, “I will be with you…” Exodus 3:12. God-sized problems require that our god is loving enough and strong enough to enable us to handle them, and our God is that loving and all-powerful to accomplish His will in our lives.
So, what Moses has spent forty years preparing the Israelites to do, Joshua gets to finish. ” Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel.” Joshua 1:2. That’s it, take the land I have promised you. What’s so difficult about that? They will be resisted by powerful, pagan warriors who will fight to protect their houses, lands, vineyards, and other possessions.
What did God say to Joshua to calm his fears and encourage him for the battles ahead? “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.” Joshua 1:5. God tells Joshua to remember how He had guided and strengthened Moses. Joshua had seen firsthand how the Lord had provided everything Moses needed to do what God told him to do. Yes, the task that fell to him was gigantic, but he could do it because God would be with him!!
Do you think the Apostle Paul may have been familiar with this story, this promise that God is always with us to accomplish His will through us? Look at the encouragement Paul offers us in Romans 8: 31, 35, 37: ” If God is for us, can stand against us? …Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nackedness, or peril or sword?… But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him that loved us.”
Jesus, our resurrected Lord, has left us the task of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. We are to make disciples and teach them to live obediently under His Lordship. This is the task of our time, and just as He promised Moses and Joshua His presence would enable them, He has promised He will be with us in the task He has left us to do. “And I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20.
Keep your focus on the Lord and He will empower you to encourage and win others through the way you deal with the challenges and tasks He has assigned you.