Mapperley Minister's Monday Morning Mail, 15th July 2013

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Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community

Good Morning!


Yesterday morning was the last in our series on the first few chapters of Joshua – we'll be coming back to carry on the story next year.


One thing that really struck me is that we think of Joshua as all about the invasion and conquest of Canaan, but actually it's much more about the people's relationship with God. So as we looked at chapter 6 yesterday, we only just got to the first battle, and even that is completely overshadowed by God's conversation with Joshua.


As Christians, we find it really easy to just assume that God is on our side. We've been watching the BBC drama The White Queen for the last few weeks, and last week they made a point of showing several different sides in the Wars of the Roses all praying to the same God before the same battle and asking for his help. But that's not how God works. He isn't a slot machine God who we can manipulate by saying the right prayers and doing the right things to get him onto our side.


He is a God who loves us, and wants what is best for us, which is for us to be in a relationship with him and to be following him in this world. But so often we turn it round and treat him like a God who should follow us.


Which is part of the reason Joshua 5 and 6 are so striking. Instead of just attacking and asking God to bless their attack, Joshua stops and recommits the whole nation to God, then celebrates the Passover which remembers how God rescued them from Egypt. At the end of chapter 5, Joshua then meets Jesus in person and asks him this:


Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?"


"Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?"


If only Christians read their Bibles a little more and tried to invoke God to our own pet causes a little less! If only we stopped to listen to him more, and assumed we knew his plan a little less! If only we had the humility to ask him what he wants us to do rather than asking him to bless us in what we were going to do anyway!


Prayer is not just about us asking God to give us the desires of our hearts, though he loves to listen to us; it's about us giving our hearts to God so that we may desire what is truly valuable.


May God grant us grace to long for him this week, and to follow in all his ways!

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