Gleanings From The Word: April 2021

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Trust and Obey

“Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”

At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to do?” (Joshua 5:14 NLT)

As Joshua faced the man in this story, most commentators believe none other than the Son of God--Joshua showed he had learned to trust and obey.

Joshua had spent many years serving Moses, who was gone now. Many a Christian leader has chafed at being second in command. They are annoyed or impatient because of being restricted or inconvenienced. When the commander of the Lord’s army told Joshua to take off his shoes (v.15), he obeyed. Where did Joshua learn this radical obedience? He acquired this during the many years when he felt restricted or inconvenienced by Moses’ orders. Joshua had discovered the secret of Moses’ leadership—trust and demonstrated obedience to God’s commands.

The commentator Matthew Henry once wrote, “for it is those know how to obey who best know how to command.” There are many natural-born leaders, but there are never inherited leadership traits; the foremost of these are trust and obedience. You may be in a position where you are chafing at the bit. It appears you are spinning your wheels. God never misses an opportunity to teach you no matter what your situation. If you are where God has placed you, he is always at work.

All Christians, whether leaders or not, must take to heart the words of the old song. “Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.” Obedience is always the proof of our trust in Christ.

The image is used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places” YWAM Publishing

and “Broken Vessels” KDP
Email: kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: Ken Barnes' Book Site
Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com
http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Sunday, April 11, 2021

Memory

Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. (Deuteronomy 8:2 NLT)

Some say that the Book of Deuteronomy could be called the book of remembering. Over and other again, before he departed from this earth, Moses told Israel to remember. The past is always the key to the present and future.

Memory is a fantastic thing. Recently I connected on Facebook with an acquaintance that I had not seen or even thought about for over sixty years. He mentioned us playing basketball together, and instantaneously, I remembered him in that context—and retrieved stored data from the recesses of my mind. God wants us to recover information from our past to help us navigate present or future situations.

Moses knew his people's tendency for their hearts to stray, their minds to wander, and their emotions to deceive them. When trials and temptation come our way, and they always do, we engage them by remembering God's faithfulness in the past. When the Prophet, probably Jeremiah, was afflicted, he said this, "Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning (Lamentations 3:21-23 NLT). Embedded in the memory of this Prophet were experiences that made these statements true. In his time of need, his memory of God's faithfulness sustained him.

If we choose to dwell on God's faithfulness in the past, he will turn perplexities into peace and fear into faith.