TIME TESTED AND TRUE
Get Ready: Draw on God's Strength & Prepare to Move Forward with Courage - Day 1
As a wedding present, my sister-in-love purchased me a collection of recipes from America’s Test Kitchen. Expert cooks work together to prepare a meal in a test kitchen 40 to 60 times in order to determine what cooking methods and ingredients work best. Only cooking procedures that have been fully vetted as time tested and true appear in the cookbook.
I have consulted that book on many occasions to determine how to “best” fulfill my duties as the chef in our home. Regrettably, it doesn’t contain any of my Cuban Abuela’s best recipes. Those she carried in her soul and took with her to the grave. Long ago, I had asked her how to make her flan, but she cooked by instinct and not be measurement. Once she was laid to rest, I was left floundering for how to re-create all the goodness from her kitchen.
Joshua has been appointed to guide the people of Israel now that Moses has died. The mantle of leadership has been placed on his shoulders, and the Lord isn’t giving him much time to adjust to his new responsibility. God immediately puts him to work: “Moses is dead. Now, you get ready…”
Perhaps like me you feel ill-prepared for an area where God has called you to “lead.” It might be right in your home or family. (Lord, why did you give me these difficult people to love? I have asked that more than once this year!) The Almighty often gives us assignments that seem beyond our capability. He calls us out of our comfort zone.
The good news is that He has given us His book to guide us. The wisdom found in our Bibles is time-tested and true.
God doesn’t send Joshua out ill-prepared to lead.
Friend, you can trust your Heavenly Father will never tell you to “get ready” and not give you what you need.
You will find all the strength and courage you need for this season as you study the Scriptures. Instead of spending all your time worrying about what you cannot do, let the Word of God “inhabit” your thoughts, shape your perspective, and take control of your actions. To meditate on what God says is like engaging in a continual spiritual exercise plan for your mind.
Take note of the sweet promise from the Lord: When you focus your thoughts on the Truth, you will be prosperous and successful. (He doesn’t say you might be — He says you will certainly be successful.) The Hebrew word “success” implies having prudent wisdom and insight to guide your actions. The “prosperity” the Lord promises is not the temporal material wealth of this world, but the supernatural empowering of His Spirit that enables you to overcome and move forward in victory.
God has called you to lead with strength and courage right where He has placed you today. You have a time-tested and true guidebook in your hands to help you triumph.
FUEL FOR THOUGHT:
“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” (Colossians 3:16, NIV)