PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 23): As You well know, I have been struggling a bit the last couple of weeks. I haven’t been struggling in my faith, but in the daily consistency of my quiet times, Father. Ever since my military retirement celebration when we had a total of 27 people sleeping in my house and the chaos of all that, I have not been my normal consistency of 7 days a week in quiet time with You. In this verse, You tell us to get rid of all other gods and offer our hearts to You. I do not feel like I’ve been doing that lately and I am sorry for my disobedience, Father. Please forgive me for my inconsistency. Help me to get back at fully giving my heart to You, Father, so that I may be pleasing to You in all ways.
PROMISE (verse 19): Interestingly enough, I see a bit of a hidden promise in this verse. The verse specifically states that You are a jealous God and if we do not worship You that You will not remove our transgressions and sin. The reverse of that would be that if we do fully worship You, that You will remove our transgressions and sins. You did this for me personally through the crucifixion of Your Son, Jesus Christ. All my transgressions and sins are wiped clean because of His sacrifice and I am grateful for that. Thank You for the promise here, Father, of the washing of my transgressions and sins.
ATTITUDE (verse 23): Help me, Father, with my attitude towards full commitment and obedience to my faith. In this verse, You are telling Your people to offer their hearts to You. Although I have offered much of my heart to You, this verse does not specify a portion; it actually implies offering my entire heart to You. This has not been how I’ve ever lived, so it is tough for me. I haven’t offered my heart fully to anyone or anything in this life, other than maybe inconsistency. Help me to embrace this attitude, Father, for a full offering of my heart to You. I’m not sure when/if I’ll get to offering my heart fully to You, but I do know that I will try to get there one day before I join You in Heaven.
COMMAND (verse 14): You were speaking to Your people through Joshua in this verse. Something that stuck out to me is that he starts the verse out with “fear the Lord and worship Him.” That alone is a powerful command and reminder. Then he continues the sentence with “in sincerity and truth.” I wonder how many people that heard this back then were convicted deeply as I have been from hearing it. Oftentimes, since coming to faith, I have worshipped You because that’s what I was supposed to do. I didn’t do that nor fearing You in sincerity and truth, unfortunately. I need to work more on my sincerity in my faith instead of doing things because it’s what I’m supposed to do. I need to work more on truly embracing and memorizing Your truth with all that I am, so that I do not hold any opinions contrary to what Your truth speaks into me. Help me with all of this, Father.
EXAMPLE (verses 14-22): I find these verses interesting and funny at the same time. You are speaking to Your people through Joshua about their faith in You. I almost feel like Joshua is using the strategy that coaches tend to use to hype their players up about a game. Joshua tells them to no depart from worshipping the Lord and to not replace Him with other gods. Your people respond with “we will certainly not abandon the Lord to worship other gods!” Joshua then says they won’t be able to worship You, they reply with “No! We will worship the Lord.” I feel like Joshua is playing the role of a coach and trying to hype them up to truly believe what they are saying. It’s like You know our hearts and how sometimes we truly need a “hype man” in a sense to get us on the right track. In his final words to all of Your people, I feel like Joshua was Your “hype man” to help get and keep Your people on the right track before his death.
*DAILY NOTE: It feels great getting back into my quiet time today, but also finishing up the book of Joshua. A lot of the scripture in here was based on inheritances, battles, overcoming adversity, and Your promises being fulfilled to Your people about their great inheritance. Thank You for all of the great examples in this scripture, Father, but also for taking me along the path that Your people took to get their promises fulfilled. Their testimony is a great one and I am encouraged even more now that I’ve had some extra time to spend in this scripture. Help me with my consistency as I move onto a new book in Your great word, Father. Help me to be consistent in my quiet times, but also to be willing and able to fully offer my heart to You.
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
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