Joshua 1:6
“Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their father to give them….”
After 40 years of wandering in the desert, the Israelites were ready to occupy their new home. They were ready to step into their promise land and become the people they were called to be. Maybe some of them knew that it would be more than just walking over a river and settling in, but I’m guessing that most believed it would be easy living from that point on. Why wouldn’t they need to be strong and courageous? They were about to have it made! But we all know what waited for them on the other side of the Jordan. Once Israel stepped into their promised land, Jericho was waiting. It wasn’t just a situation where they got their promise and they set-up shop. They probably COULD have just settled right there and chosen to be content. The promise was technically fulfilled, right? However, God was not calling them to just settle by the river and be content with the bare minimum of the promise He had given them. He wanted them to experience the fullness of His promise. For the Israelites, there was still a battle to come, step fully into and steward the promise God had given them.
As we go through this fast, I know a lot of us are looking at the end game. For me it’s breakthrough (and an iced cold brew, if I’m really honest). But as I’ve gotten amazing revelation and heard God speak of things to come through this first week of fasting, I’ve also been challenged to ask myself, how will you steward the revelation you are receiving after the 40 days are over? Will you continue to fight for the promises He’s spoken to you, even when your current situation looks nothing like the promise? Will the 40 days just become an awesome experience of some great times of breakthrough, eventually forgotten about as we move back to our “normal routines”?
“…be STRONG and COURAGEOUS…”
God always has something for us on the other side of revelation, breakthrough, and promises fulfilled. For the Israelites, they technically got their promise, but they had to defeat an entire city to step into an even greater revelation of it. They had to be STRONG, because there was still fight ahead. They had to be COURAGEOUS because they had to believe that God had something even better for them beyond just entering and setting foot in the promised land.
As a church and as individuals, my prayer is that we will be STRONG and COURAGEOUS. I pray that we are willing to be strong enough to fight the things that will try to pull us from stewarding the revelations and breakthrough we receive during this fast. And I pray that we are courageous enough to know these 40 days is only the beginning of the promise of things to come.
