Not One!

A crisis of faith is how I describe it. Not exactly life threatening, but enough to shake your faith a bit. You begin to question what previously was ironclad and unshakable. You didn’t flinch under duress before this. But what was easy now seems so difficult.

Now the voices of doubt harass. Fear creeps in and you begin to wonder. “Am I in denial? Is my head in the sand? Why keep believing when my check account mocks me? When the washing machine dies? When my husband may lose his job?”

But what is the alternative? Worry myself sick? Wallow in gloom and doom?

I went through a crisis recently. I say through literally, because once again the Lord has a way of encouraging us doesn’t He? And I found the lift I needed in His Word. 

In the book of Joshua, the Israelites stood at the brink of the Jordan river. On the other side was the Promised Land. It was theirs, but God didn’t merely hand it to them. They had to take it by faith. 

But first they had to cross the raging torrent. This was not a “lift a staff and the waters parted” miracle. They had to step into the river by faith and trust God would do the rest. 

They didn’t waver, but strode forward stepped in and then the water dried up. Their next steps were on the Promised Land. Now they had to take ahold of what God gave them. 

Beloved, perhaps this past year you have experience a crisis of faith. Maybe you are in the middle of one at this very moment. Are you wavering at the river? At the verge of what God has promised you? 

Keep moving forward and let God take care of the river. Step into this new year and into what He has promised you. 

Has He not promised and will He not fail? I urge you, don’t turn back now. What will you miss if you quit now? 

I leave you with a passage in Joshua that encouraged me: 

So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them. Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled. Joshua 21:43-45