Shortcuts

God doesn't like shortcuts. He isn't interested in easy.

In Joshua chapter 1, God tells Joshua this starting in verse 3:

"I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you."

Sounds good huh?

Sounds like Joshua has it made. God will never leave or forsake him. He will be given every land where he sets his foot. His territory will extend over numerous nations, and no one will be able to stand up against him the rest of his days. Not bad. But I thought God wasn't interested in easy?

When you read on through verse 9 you see that God tells Joshua to be "strong and courageous" a total of three times. Whenever God does or says something more than once, you better pay attention. So why does God tell him to be strong and courageous even though it sounds like he can't be defeated?

Reading on in the book of Joshua to the end of this part of the story you find out that he had to conquer all the kings and nations in the region. 31 kings in all! (Joshua 12:24) Yes, God will deliver on his promise, but Joshua has some tough work to do first. There isn't a shortcut.

I like shortcuts. Americans like shortcuts. We are fed shortcuts every day. We take shortcuts every day. Shortcuts are the backbone of all advertisements. There is a common misinformation in all these ads though, and it's that we can GET A LOT FOR A LITTLE – or even better yet, WE CAN HAVE IT ALL FOR NOTHING. We are obsessed with cutting corners and getting to the destination without any effort in the journey. And that is what these messages are trying to sell us on. Whatever that destination may be, we are always trying to achieve it the easiest, fastest, least complicated way….. I do. Do you?

The entire country has bought in to them and advertisers cater their products to this. For us as Americans, cutting corners seems to be the key to progress, success, or results….THE TRAGEDY OF THIS IS THAT GOD'S PEOPLE, CHRISTIANS, THE CHURCH, HAVE ADOPTED THIS SAME VIEW TOWARDS FAITH. The world has slowly snuck this lie into our hearts and we have become slaves to the world. We are affected and influenced by the world's messages but stand dormant and unresponsive to God's message.

"The biblical notion of worldliness is a sleepiness of the soul in which the status, pleasures, comforts, and cares of the world appear solid, stunning, and affecting while the truths of Scripture become abstract - unable to grip the heart or guide our everyday activities."¹

Think about that. Do the messages of this world affect you more than the messages in Scripture?

God wants our hearts captivated by His voice. He isn't an abstract God! He wants us to be strong and courageous in our faith to point where the truths of Scripture become solid, stunning, and affecting.

It's not going to be easy. We just might have to conquer 31 opposing "kings" along the way.

What "kings" stand in your way of taking possession of God's promises, are you conquering them? Do the truths of Scripture seem abstract to you?

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¹ Quote from Unfashionable, Tullian Tchividjian

This post is part of the 'One Word at a Time' Blog Carnival hosted over at Bridget Chumbley's blog. Go there to see all the other great posts about 'Strength'

[Note: This post is a revised version of the original Shortcuts post from 12/15/2008]