Today’s Reading, Joshua 12-15
Focal Scripture: Joshua 14:8 “My brothers who went with me caused the people to lose heart, but I followed the Lord my God completely.”
How you view situations makes a big difference personally and professionally. If you view situations as attainable it will filter through the group you are around. However, if you are extremely negative and believe the worst about a situation that will filter to the people also. It has been my experience that the more negative a report the quicker a group of people will believe it to be true. The more positive reigns report the people will believe suspicious.
In today’s reading we see this truth play out with Caleb. He is looking back on his time when he was sent out to scout out the land. He came back and reported that the land is wonderful and is ready to be taken by the Israelites. However, the rest of the group decided because the men in the land were big they would get destroyed. They spread this story and the people that heard it lost heart. Which in turn made the people lose hope.
It has been my experience leading in churches, schools, and sports that many people only see what they want to see. Most people, unfortunately, like to focus on the negative. It travels through organizations and destroys a culture. They see the giants that lie ahead not the possibilities. If you dare to think different or try new things they will do everything in their power to destroy you as a person. This is done because they are focused on the negative and even spread it to create a destructive narrative.
The challenge for us as believers is to think biblically about our situations. We can do this by knowing our hope is in the Lord. That just because a situation is difficult doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Then having faith that God will work even when life doesn’t make sense to the outside world and even the church.
We need believers who hold to the truth that God still works in the lives of people today. This means we can’t listen to people who gossip and tear others down. This also means that negative people can sour an entire group. To combat this we don’t need to be complainers. We don’t need to blame others and we don’t need to downplay how mighty our God is in difficult situations.
We must be the example of a powerful faith.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading Joshua 16-18
