JOSHUA 1:5-6

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.  Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.

TO PONDER

The Land of Canaan is given to the Israelites by divine grant as an eternal inheritance, received through faith in the One who had preserved them and brought them out of bondage. God, by His binding word, is with them. It is by His will and might, and not their own, that they enter into this promised land.

Canaan foreshadows a more excellent promised land, the eternal Kingdom of Christ. In the same way, the Israelites' exodus foreshadows the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Through the Word and water of Holy Baptism, we are set apart as God's people and joined to Christ as sojourners in His new exodus. We are free from bondage to sin, death and the devil. We have entered the Kingdom through faith in the one who has preserved and saved us.

Therefore God says, "Be strong and courageous...just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you." As the apostle Paul writes to the believers in Rome: "If God is for us, who can be against us?"

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank you for always being with me, even until the end of time. Help me to remain strong and courageous as your redeemed child, sure in the knowledge that I have life both now and forever.Please empower me through the Holy Spirit to boldly shine your light in the world to the glory of the Father, and help others to inherit this promised land through your life, death, and resurrection. In your holy and worthy name, Amen.

Today's devotion written by Anthony Fawcett, St Paul's Sydney & LifeWay Westside