April Twelfth
Today’s One Year Bible Reading…
Joshua 5:1-7:15 * Luke 15:1-32
Psalm 81:1-16 * Proverbs 13:1
"I heard an unknown voice say, 'Now I will take the load from your shoulders, I will free your hands from their heavy tasks.'"
Psalm 81:5-6
Sin creates heaviness. God’s heart and purpose has always been to take weighted-down sinners and teach us to instead take up His easy yoke and light burden. Letting God empower us with the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to follow in His paths of obedience to find relief and peace.
"A wise child accepts a parent’s discipline; a mocker refuses to listen to correction"
(Proverbs 13:1)
May God's wisdom fill our hearts as we seek to obey Him because all our freedom and joy is found in His presence. This is why…
"There is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven't strayed away."
(Luke 15:7)
God knows the bondage sin brings, and longs for us to have the freedom that comes from obedience. There is a sense of wholeness found in a life lived wholly unto the LORD, and God longs for us to feel the relief of having the weight of sin lifted off our shoulders.
"Oh that My people would listen to Me! Oh that Israel would follow Me, walking in My paths! How quickly I would then subdue their enemies! How soon My hands would be upon their foes!"
(Psalm 81:13-14)
God has our perfect desires in mind. How much greater it is to trust in His wisdom than to follow our own! We see a perfect picture of this truth in Joshua today. (Joshua 5-7) The walls of Jericho must have looked massively impossible, so God called for a silent march, knowing how our words of discouragement have great power to weaken ourselves and others. The silence would have caused them to lean into prayer rather than speaking out their doubt and fear. Wouldn’t you love to know what silent prayers were prayed that day? I bet I can guess, because I know what I would be praying! We can be so quick to talk of impossibility, but what wisdom is found in being silent before God in prayer as we watch His battle plans unfold. God, in His might and strength had gone before them and caused their enemies to have…
"lost heart… because of them." (Joshua 5:1)
Then, with a mighty shout in the dead center of God's plan, the impossible and impenetrable walls were knocked over and the great city was conquered! But even with great victory, the ensnares of the enemy and the weight of sin are never far behind. This is why we always must be on guard! Whether we’re talking about the sin of Achan in Joshua, the prodigal son in Luke 15, or our own personal weights of sin, God knows that those paths just lead to heaviness, starvation, destruction, and disgust. If we will just follow His paths of obedience and purity, we will always find places of victory and God’s might along the way. The heart of the Father longs to run to us, embrace us, kiss us, and celebrate our returning, from the tiniest of sins to the greatest! How He longs to make us victorious in sin and battles and to fill our lives with His goodness, freedom, peace, satisfaction, contentment, and joy.
"Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things... I would feed you with the finest wheat. I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock."
Psalm 81:10, 16
What stood out to you from today’s Bible reading?