To Encourage You

Joshua 1:2-3 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses.”

Are you aware of the many things God has promised to those who believe in Him?  In the Old Testament we have a great shadow of these things. It’s called the Promised Land. The Promised Land was called this because it was the land that God had promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs of Israel (Deuteronomy 19:8).  It was described in great detail to Moses, and God commanded Moses to write it down in His Law.  It was a vast area, especially to people who had lived as nomads and slaves for their entire lives.  In the verse above, as Israel was about to enter the Land after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, God promised their new leader, Joshua, that he could have every place he placed the sole of his foot.  It was quite a promise!

So, what does this have to do with you and me?  Probably more than we can imagine.  As I think about all that God had promised Israel in terms of physical territory, I am reminded of the vast and incredible promises that God has given each and every believer. Listen to this language from 2 Peter 1:3-4: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”  These great spiritual promises, like the physical promises God promised Israel, are ours as we make progress, i.e., as we “walk” in our faith. 

Listen as Peter goes on to describe this advance: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”(2 Peter 1:5-8).   And how do we do all this? He has already told us.  It’s “through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises”(2 Peter 1:3).  Our knowledge of Him, which includes all His many promises, are all available for us in one place: His Holy Word.  It was the same for Joshua.  Soon after God spoke the words above to him, He said this: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8). 

God’s promises to Joshua and Israel, and God’s promises to you and me who have put our faith in Him: vast, wonderful, even immeasurable things, if we will only read about them in His Word, meditate on them, believe what God has said, and obey.