Hey everyone Landry here. I wanted to share with you some encouragement and a challenge from the book of Joshua. In Joshua 6, we see the Lord give the city of Jericho, its king, and all its mighty men of valor over to Joshua and the Israelites. Then the Lord gives clear instructions on how they were to take this city. March around the wall of the city one time for 7 days and on the 7th day march around the wall 7 times, and on the 7th time, the priests will blow the trumpets, and the people of Israel will lift a shout of praise, and the Walls will come down!
Seems pretty straightforward to me! The walk would have been roughly 1 mile a day. So on that 7th day, we are talking 7 miles of walking in a monotonous circle! No Thanks! To the Israelites, I can see how this may have sounded stupid. Maybe they thought, what is the point! Does this wall really need to come down? Yet they trusted the Lord and walked around the walls. They got to see the promise of the Lord fulfilled yet again!
I think for us, at least one lesson we can learn from this is that the Israelites didn't let the wall affect their worship, they allowed their worship to affect the wall.
The Lord gave them clear instructions on how to destroy the wall in front of them. I think for us today, another way to phrase these instructions is found in Psalm 100. "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations." Psalm 100:4-5.
We have the instruction. Now, let's identify those walls in our lives, the things that are keeping us from what the Lord told us was ours for the taking! Then, we let thankfulness, praise, and worship to the Lord tear down the walls as we enter His gates with thanksgiving!
Blessings,
Landry