Be Bold In The Lord

In Joshu 10 something amazing happened, something the writter tells us has never happened before or since.  Joshua is persuing his enemies and he prays this prayer very quickly, in the presence of Israel's fighting men as they were engaged in the battle, "Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."  And that is exactly what happend.  For about a day the sun and moon didn't move so that Joshua and the Israelites might destroy their enemies.

This is pretty gutsy I have to admit.  Who would have even thought to utter such a request?  Everyone knows that you can't stop the sun, or move a mountain into the sea, or speak to a storm and demand calm or cause a plant to wither and die.  That's crazy.  But when you're in the middle of a battle and you know The Lord is with you, I guess you gain some confidence to ask for the outlandish.

If you go up to verses 11 and 12 you'll see why Joshua felt like he could ask for the sun to stand still.  You see, while Joshua and his men were fighting God got involved.  He began to hurl large hailstones down on their enemies.  Pretty cool, right?  So you're being persecuted by someone who doesn't believe in your God and He just tosses a hail stone down from the sky and crushes Him.  Cool.  In fact, it says that God actually killed more people that day than Joshua all of Israel's finest!  Even though God us using Joshua and his men, strengthening then and giving them victory He still does more damage to their enemies than they could.  

Verses 12 then says that on that Day The Lord, gave the Amorites over to Israel.  So here's what happened.  Joshua and his men were being strong and couragous and also fighting in the strength God had given them but God was actually winning the battle.   Seeing God actually get involved must have given Joshua confidence to ask for the impossible, if you jump to the New Testament you read that Jesus actually says, ask for whatever you want in my Name and it will be done for you.  When we ask God to do what He wants to do guess what?  He delivers!  

So the sun stood still while Joshua's men persued and slayed their enemies.verse 14 makes this obvious statement, "surely The Lord was fighting for Israel."  Ya think?

Then Joshua, in the days that followed, rapidly captured and destroyed all the cities of the kings that had fought against him.  And way down at the end of the chapter in verse 42 you read this, Joshua conqured all this in one campaign because, "the God of Israel, fought for Israel."  

Guess what.  The God Israel is also your God.  He wants you to fight for you too.  Not to destroy enemies and conquer lands for conquest, but to destroy the strongholds of satan and conquer hearts for Jesus.  So here's the secret for experiencing your own Sun stopping moment, take notice of what God is doing, join Him and then ask for the impossible to help you accomplish His mission.  Oh, and ask boldly, in front of your people, becasue without faith it is impossible to please Him.

Here's us seeking to see the sun stand still that lives might be changed, when The Lord, the God of your life fights for you.