February 18, 2022: The Challenges of Life We Face Every Day Must be Faced with the Lord at Our Side.

In today's Our Daily Bread, we are reminded that we all face challenges every day of our lives. But these challenges should "lift" us up, not bring us down.

During a tour of an aircraft carrier, a jet fighter pilot explained that planes need a 56-kilometer-per-hour wind to take off on such a short runway. To reach this steady breeze, the captain turns his ship into the wind. “Shouldn’t the wind come from the plane’s back?” a young observer asked. The pilot answered, “No. The jets must fly into the wind. That’s the only way to achieve lift.”

God called Joshua to lead His people into the “winds” that awaited them in the promised land. Joshua required two things. Internally, he needed to “be strong and very courageous” (Joshua 1:7); and externally, he needed challenges. This included the daily task of leading thousands of Israelites, facing walled cities (6:1–5), demoralizing defeats (7:3–5), Achan’s theft (vv. 16–26), and continual battles (chs. 10–11).

Joshua 1: 7-8 (NIV)

“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.

The wind that blew in Joshua’s face would lift his life if his thrust came from God’s instructions. God said he must “be careful to obey all the law . . . do not turn from it to the right or to the left . . . 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."

We too must accept the challenges God puts before us every day of our lives. But the most important thing we must not forget, it is God who will "lifts" us up through these challenges by the power of the Holy Spirit within us. We must be willing to always be "surrendered" to our God, moment-by-moment, and day-by-day.

PERSONNAL COMMENT:

Our courage and strength can only come through our faith and obedience in our Lord. We must not try to face these challenges on our own. Let us learn to "surrender our self-will" to our God and come to see His power work through us.