Abandon & Surrender

In our church in Almeria Spain, our Pastor, Isabel M. Sanchez, preached from Joshua chapter 6 on Sunday, September 13, 2009. Following are some thoughts from the sermon…

Abandon your own will.

Surrender to God’s will.

At Jericho the Israelites didn’t depend on their own will or strength; they depended on God’s will and strength. Hebrews 11:30 says, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.” By faith, in Spanish is, por la fe.

The well known verses Proverbs 3:5-6; “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not in your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Our pastor said, “Does God have the right to change my plans? There mine. But we have given our hearts to him.” She explained to me after the service that the word ‘trust’ in this verse in the Spanish version means to put our trust and confidence in God and to want what God wants more than what we want. The all powerful God is in us; it is not for us, but for God.

In the story in Joshua, the Israelites walked around Jericho for 6 days. On the seventh day they came together again, and verse 16b says, “Joshua commanded the people, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!’” Each day we “walk around” our cities and towns. We come together on the 7^th day, Sunday, and with one voice we ask the Lord to tear down the walls of our cities, to tear down the walls in the hearts of people who don’t know Him – for Him – that they may know Him.

Facedown in Reverence

In our church here in Spain, our Pastor, Isabel M. Sanchez, has been speaking from the book of Joshua. On August 30, 2009, the text was Joshua 5:13-15. “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ‘What message does the Lord have for his servant?’ The commander of the Lord’s army replied, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.” In the Spanish version, the last phrase says “Y Josué le obedeció. (And Joshua obeyed.)

Our pastor went on to talk about how people of the Muslim faith whose God is not a personal God bow facedown 5 times a day to pray. They pray "Allah is great. Allah is the only God. There is none worthy of worship except Allah." Yet we as Christians who have a personal God who died for our sins, how often everyday do we pray? How often do we praise God and tell him that we want to do His will and not ours, that we are His servant?