Devotions are life-changing

Joshua 1; Psalms 120–122; Isaiah 61; Matthew 9

When I became a Christian, my sister told me to read the Bible until a truth stopped me, then write it down. Now, most of that writing is in digital form but I have a stack of journals filled with the results of that excellent advice. Sometimes I get carried away in the writing yet God continues to change my life. Today, I’m noting what ‘stopped’ me in the above daily reading passages.

Joshua 1. Joshua replaced Moses as leader. His name is the Hebrew form of Jesus. Moses represents the law, and Moses just died. Salvation by law-keeping did not work. Now the people needed a Savior. While Joshua was not Jesus, I read this chapter as if it were the Lord telling His Son what He must do as the leader of His people. Jesus was sent as fully man and lived here as ‘the Son of man’ so these words were appropriate. Too long to put here, but I am humbled by the reminder that while here, Jesus as fully man relied on His Father just like I need to rely on the Lord.

“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 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 1:5–8)

I am to do the same as both Joshua and Jesus — focus on the will of God and obey it!

Psalms 120-121. The first psalm is a cry for deliverance as the writer is aware of living in land of liars. I feel like that. The news each day contradicts itself. The world seems to be in chaos. “I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!” (Psalm 120:7). As the next psalm says, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2) The next verses also answer my distress:

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 121:5–8)

I am also to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!” (Psalm 122:6) for there is blessing and glory to God in being concerned for peace among His people.

Isaiah 61 is a foretaste of what Christ will do for His people and a description of His love for righteousness. The author says that he greatly rejoices in the Lord because:

“He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.” (Isaiah 61:10–11)

Victory is coming. Jesus came — bringing that righteousness that all nations are experiencing. The Christian life does not make the news but that does not mean God’s people are absent or idle. Works of mercy are happening in homes, neighborhoods, hospitals, prisons. Wherever God’s people are, the example of Jesus is also.

Matthew 9. This chapter is about mercy. Mercy is doing for others what they cannot do for themselves. Jesus healed those who were paralyzed and helpless, called to Himself those hated by others, raised the dead, opened blind eyes, loosened mute tongues and sent His disciples out to have the same compassion and draw others into His kingdom.

APPLY: Being a Christian is not about following rules but about being like Jesus. His realm of ministry was a small part of a big world yet what He did changed lives and changed history and the world. Even though it will never make the news, may I be courageously obedient to what He is saying to me today. Focus, trust, pray, be merciful, do/go what and where He asks and rejoice in Him.