Devotional:

Welcome back to another day of 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting! Not only do I hope you have enjoyed it so far, I hope God has been able to speak directly to you throughout this fast. Today, for our devotional, we're going to talk about the idea that first we have to take a step, and then we are able to trust God. In the story that we're going to be looking at today, Joshua 3, as Joshua is leading the Israelites to the Promised Land, they get to the point where they have to cross the Jordan River.

God gave Joshua the plan on how to cross the Jordan, and his job was to communicate it to the Israelites. This is the message that he conveys to them in Joshua 3:9-13, “Joshua said to the Israelites, come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord - the Lord of all the earth - set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and it will stand up in a heap.”

This is a pretty big test right now for Joshua and for the Israelite people. He was just told by God to tell his people that as they start to walk in the river, it will stop flowing. While yes, he might have some doubts, it's pretty easy to trust if you get this message directly from God. But as we begin to look at the Israelite people, they're in a situation where they didn't get this direct communication from God. They didn't get this from God himself. They got this from Joshua. Yes, they trusted Joshua, but they had to be thinking, “how in the world is this going to happen?”

Though they might have had questions, they moved forward and in verses 14-15 it says, “So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at a flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing.” See, in this moment, the priests who are carrying the ark learned how to literally take a step and then see God work.

While I may not have a specific encounter like that, I definitely know what it is like to take a step before finding out what God has in store. Back in the Spring of 2021, while I was in the lowest season of my life, I decided to start serving. I originally signed up to mow grass in the summer, but while I was meeting with the person in charge of that team, the conversation quickly went from mowing grass to an internship opportunity that was available. Since I knew I needed to grow closer to God, I figured being around church people all summer would make me a better person. Fast forward three and a half years, I now get to lead the ministry I interned for. Was I qualified? No. Did I read my bible every day? No. Did I think I was worthy enough to be in that role? Absolutely not. But, because I was willing to take a step of faith, God was able to take complete control of my life and give me a calling that no person can take away from me.

My encouragement to you would be this - whether you know what the outcome is going to be or not, step into it, because I can assure you, and I can promise you, if you are able to trust God enough to just take that step, He's going to continue to show up time after time after time.

Prayer:

God, we're so grateful for who you are. We're grateful that even in the moments of uncertainty, even in the moments where we don't know what the outcome of a certain situation is going to be, you are still there, and we are able to trust you in all of those situations. God, as we continue to go through life, as we continue to go through the day, I pray that you give us the ability to take steps forward towards you, knowing and believing and holding onto the hope that is in your Son, Jesus. We love you so much and it's in your son's name we pray. Amen.

Thank you for joining us today for 21 Days! Tune in tomorrow and we'll have another devotional for you. Join us every Tuesday night at 6:30pm at each location as we gather together to worship, have a devotional, and pray together during these 21 Day of Prayer and Fasting.