Let's Ask God

Let's Ask God Then the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men." Joshua 6:2

There's something we need to be honest about: part of us doesn't really want to hear what God has to say. Really. Even after years of God's rescues and surprises and blessing upon blessing, there's a part of me that gets irritated when someone says, "Let's ask God." The act itself is a disruption. Sometimes it feels like grinding the gears. Stop? Now? Ask God? I'm bugged. That's part of it. And the other part is, if we do hear something, we'll have to obey.

 

I was reading the story of Joshua, and it stopped me in my tracks. My goodness, the Israelites received specific instructions from God all the way through the battle of Jericho - when to cross the river, how to cross the river, when to take Jericho, how to take Jericho. And it worked! It worked. You'd think they would have been convinced. This is how to follow God. But the next day comes and here they are, ready to take city number two, and you know what - they don't ask! It's not that they don't ask the second question, they don't even ask the first. They just charge ahead. And they pay for it. Dearly.

 

I know something of this. I don't ask because I don't want to know. If I know what God thinks, then I'm faced with the decision of whether to follow his counsel or not. What was initially just a quandry or a moment of confusion becomes an issue of obedience.

This devotion is taken from Knowing the Heart of God by John Eldredge, a republished title from OMF Literature.