What new ground are you trying to take in your life? What enemies are uniting against you until you think the only option is to give up? How close are you to the better on the other side?
Have you ever determined in your life that you are going to do better at something? That you are going to break a bad habit or work toward a goal that you’ve been putting off? That you are going to set a boundary in a relationship or break one off entirely? That you are going to obey God and do that thing He’s asked of you?
You’ve made this decision in your head, and you start working to make it reality in your life. And all of a sudden, things just start falling apart. Everything is working against you. Your car won’t start. You get sick. Your kids lose their minds. Your responsibilities at work multiply. You can’t understand why, when you are trying to do something really good, your life is getting really bad.
My time with the Lord in the mornings has led me to the book of Joshua. Yeah, I thought it was a weird place to contemplate too. Shouldn’t I be in the Gospels? Or in the Psalms and Proverbs? Or in Paul’s letters? Or, goodness, in these days of craziness, Revelation? Instead, I’m sitting here in Joshua.
And I thought it would be redundant. I mean, we all know the crux of Joshua, right? “Be strong and courageous.” The fight to take the Promised Land. A bunch of names of Canaanite tribes that nobody can pronounce. Israelites still being Israelites and teaching us how NOT to mess up.
Like always, I’m wrong. And God knows exactly what He’s doing. I am learning so much, and being so humbled by it. And one of the things that I’ve been taught by Joshua is how enemies operate.
When the Israelites crossed into Canaan—the land promised to them by God (it’s ours if we want it, but He’s not going to just hand it to us), the land that they’d spent 40 years avoiding in favor of the wilderness (hmmm, some of us are still avoiding those decisions to take ground in our lives)—their enemies had already heard about them. The Israelites sent spies into the area to gain more information about it, and people told them that everybody was already on high alert because of them.
So the moment they made the decision to step into that territory—promised to them by God, but not belonging to them yet—they were attracting the attention of whoever already occupied it.
The Israelites’ enemies watched them as they started with Jericho. They wanted to see how serious these people were and what they were capable of. When Jericho fell in a way that screamed God was with them, the enemies were shaking in their boots. Then they watched as Israel faltered at Ai. They had no idea that Israel had lost because of sin in the camp. All they knew is that they’d lost. They probably felt a twinge of hope that the territory wasn’t in danger after all. But Israel dealt with their sin and got back up. They conquered Ai with a battle strategy so smooth that it should be a plot in one of those satisfying action movies guys like to watch. They won a great victory, and their fame spread throughout the land.
You would think that after two battles like that, the rest of the inhabitants would come to Israel, lay down their weapons, and beg for their lives. Instead, two things happened that I think we need to be aware of when we try to take territory that God has promised us in our own lives.
First, their enemies united with each other. The kings of the fortified cities, some of which hated each other, came together. They made an agreement to fight against Israel for the good of all the territory.
Second, their enemies deceived them into relationship. The Gibeonites, who gave an Oscar-worthy performance that I fully recommend you check out in Joshua 9, tricked the Israelites into thinking that they were from some other territory far away. The Israelites didn’t even ask God and made a covenant with them before they knew they were enemies.
When we decide to take ground that God has promised us in our lives, we can expect two things:
- Our enemies will eventually unite against us. They aren’t going to step aside and welcome us in. There will be a fight before it gets better.
- There will be those enemies who sneakily try to make agreements with us. They want to survive. They want to stay. There must be deepened relationship with our Savior before it gets better.
But will it get better? If you stick it out through the alliances against you and reject the alliances trying to infiltrate you, will it get better?
Israel conquered that territory. Those kings who’d united against them attacked, and Israel fought…but not alone. God was with them—He and all His resources. He made the sun and moon stand still. He sent large hailstones. It was an epic battle that ended with Israelite feet on the necks of those kings and Joshua’s chill-worthy words:
”Do not be afraid or discouraged. Be strong and courageous, for the Lord will do this to all the enemies you fight.”
Joshua 10:25
It got better. Israel still stands today because these people took the ground. Because they fell but got back up. Because they didn’t give up when it got harder before it got better.
What about you?
What new ground are you trying to take in your life? What enemies are uniting against you until you think the only option is to give up? How close are you to the better on the other side? What future generations could be different because you fought with the Lord to conquer what He’s promised you?
That new territory that is calling to you…that new territory that you’ve stepped into…that new territory that seems to have thrown your life into chaos…it’s worth the fight. And you’ll never take it without one.
Because before it ever gets better, it gets harder. But with God, the hard is just an opportunity to watch Him do epic things.
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