Ridiculous Confidence

Starting to get like junior high giddy about the old testament and Israel. I don\’t know what it is about the old testament but I just find a ridiculous amount of application in it. Not only do I find application but I relate so well with whats going on with the relationship between God and Israel. Like I talked about before with the roller coaster. God has such a tolerance and patients that it really amazes me. We serve a HUGE God. I was about to read more in Judges and began in chapter one, but chapter one started by saying, \”after Joshua died,\” so I was like I have no idea about Joshua. I decided to go back one book and start at Joshua 1.

Joshua was the son of Nun, the aide of Moses and God appointed him the leader of Israel at this time. I don\’t know the whole story yet but as far as the first chapter goes it looks like God is about to use Joshua to lead the people of Israel across the Jordan river into the land that he has promised the Israelites. Now this is the part of absolute ridiculous confidence. God speaks to Joshua in chapter one and says,  


“Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. ³ I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. ⁴ Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. ⁵ No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
 ⁷ “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. ⁸ Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”


It is kinda a long passage but there is so much confidence and comfort in this passage that it just cannot be over looked. God says, \”no one will be able to stand against you,\” \”I will be with you\”, \”I will never leave you or forsake you,\” \”Be strong and courageous,\” \”Be strong and VERY courageous\”. Okay so you probably get the picture and I only made it half way through the verses. God is like the ultimate pep talker. Could you imagine being on a NFL team and God is the coach. You are down by 35 points(prolly would never happen with God as your coach but for the sake of this analogy) and it seems like all hope is lost. You have your heads hung low, then God gets up on a chair in the middle of the locker room and says, be strong, be very courageous, I am with you, I will never forsake you, we are going to win this game, I have the plan, follow what I say and victory is ours. Could you imagine? I would be so pumped I think I could lift a car. Could you imagine being in a room full of guys that just got a spark lite under them like that? It would be surreal. 


That is what Israel should have been feeling. Shit, if i was in that crowd and Joshua stood the top of the hill and shouted to all of the Israelites and told them what God had just told him I would have let out like the biggest battle cry of all… Let\’s get this party started! Let take this land and slay some dudes! 


I feel like there is so much comfort and confidence in the God that we just do not even come close to taking advantage of. He has so much control over things that it is literally ridiculous. It almost brings me back to the slave and master relationship that Paul Washer describes in one of his sermons,

He also goes on in another sermon that I cant seem to find that the slave no longer has to worry about anything. It is all on the master. Where the slave will sleep, what the slave will wear, what he will eat, the health of the slave. Everything. The master takes care of everything and the only thing the slave has to do is worry about pleasing the master. Thats it. One job. Please the master. There are no more worries about anything but pleasing the master. Isn\’t a wonderful thing to have such a perfect master.


God help me to be a servant of you and have a ridiculous amount of confidence in you. To the point where nothing worries me except whether or not I am pleasing you or not. Help me to be that fearless warrior for your name.