Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
vibrant lives. Welcome to Your Daily Portion with your host,
author speaker, Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning, Good morning, it is Wednesday. It's
October one, twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El
David Harris. I am your host, and this is your
Daily Portion where we give you God's word every single
day and today is no exception. We are continuing in
our lesson study series Lessons of Fate from Joshua under
the caption be strong, be strong, exclamation point. Yeah. Before
we get into that, I'd like to just say welcome
to you and ask you to go over to your
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Daily Portion dot com. This is one of the ways
that we continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's go
ahead and pray, Father, thank you for this new day,
and please help us to be strong. There's so many
things vying for our attention, and it's easy for us
to become weak. But God, you have made us strong.
Please in Jesus name, I pray, Amen and Amen again,
be strong, Be strong. I'm coming in from the Bible
Book of Joshua Joshua chapter one and will read verses
seven and nine. The Bible reads, only be thou strong
and very courageous. This is what God is saying to Joshua,
that thou mayest observe to do according to all the
law which Moses, my servant commanded thee So God is
giving Joshua a baseline. I've already established a relationship with
my people. You've seen how it works in the life
of Moses, as he leads in this context, I want
you to be strong, but I'm going to give you
the law you were around Joshua, you saw an experienced
You were faithful Joshua. Now I want you to just
be very clear so you don't make the same mistakes
that Moses made. Don't make the mistake that Aaron made.
Be strong and courageous, and do what I tell you
to do. No more this stuff about. You know, I
threw stuff into the fire and out popped a golden
calf like no more getting angry and taking glory from
me and striking what I said to speak to. None
of that. Be strong, be courageous, don't turn to the
right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper
whithersoever thou goest. We're going to talk about that prospering
a little more on another day. And in verse nine,
have I not commanded thee be strong? It's a command
and of good courage. Don't be afraid. Neither be thou dismayed.
For the Lord Thy God is with THEE, whethersoever thou goest.
And so the reason why you should not be afraid,
the reason you should not be dismayed, the reason why
you should be of good courage, is because God is
with you, not because you were faithful yesterday, not because
you were faithful weeks or months ago or years ago
when you looked over and saw that there were giants
in the land, and you said, but God said that
he will give us the city when you were faithful yesterday.
That's not the reason why you're going to prosper. It's
because in that moment you knew to rely on me.
God speaking, and I want you to do it again.
I'm welcoming you, okay, and I think I have given
you the words from the text and what they mean,
so we'll just fast forward. Joshua is stepping into Moses's shoes,
and I don't mean it in the sense that God
is leading him as sort of a vice version of Moses.
It's just that Moses had walked this path for years
and decades before, so Moses was the only leader God's
people had known. In this context, Joshua was now responsible
for guiding millions into hostile territory. Repetition stressed the weight
of the call. The task ahead could have been seen
as overwhelming, which is why God encouraged him to beged courageous,
to be faithful, to be holy, So the task ahead
could have been seen as overwhelming, conquering Canaan meant focusing
on fortified cities, experiencing armies that were experienced, and giants.
Fear was natural. But God wanted Joshua to step into
the supernatural with him. Ah, God wanted him to forget
about the natural. He did not want him, as we
would have seen in the future, to be like Peter
who who said, God, if it's you, Jesus, if it
is you, Master, if it's you, bid me come out
onto the water. And then he walks miraculously on water.
But in the moment his natural mind kicked in. See
his mind full of faith that was laying hold upon God,
and his supernatural power was active, almost without thinking. It
became spiritual second nature for him to just simply follow Jesus,
keeping his eyes transfixed upon Jesus. And when he started
to look at his natural reality, wait there are winds, yep, Wait,
there are waves, yep. There is the fact that like
what goes up must come down, and this water is
not My feet aren't buoyant. In the moment that he
observed the natural, he lost focus of God in the supernatural.
And so Joshua is being commanded not to look at
the natural, but to reality to have a reality check,
a godly reality check that God is the one who
is giving him supernatural ability to just do what God said.
And so the people had a history of rebellion. Joshua
had seen their disobedience firsthand. We see that in Numbers,
chapter fourteen. To lead them required more than just normal
strength and courage. We've already covered it needed to be
supernatural and spiritual. Leadership requires the resilience, strength and courage
are tied directly to doing what God says, that is,
to be in cooperation with him. From the book Patriarchs
and Prophets, we read page four hundred and eighty two.
Joshua was now the acknowledged leader of God's people. Courage
and strength were especially necessary in one who was to
succeed Moses. Only by faith in God could he fulfill
the great responsibility laid a him, laid upon him. How
many times has God given you responsibilities? Can we just
bring it a little bit closer? Is there a position
at work that you have now assumed that your predecessor
is you know, who was well decorated, may be very
good at what he or she did prior to your arrival,
And now you're stepping in, and you're wondering, God, what
am I supposed to do? Be courageous? Huh, be faithful.
Focus your attention on God and not on any of
that stuff.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: Maybe your predecessor like me. When I was twenty three,
I was promoted to management in the psych field and
my predecessor, my predecessor, after I had done the vocational
counseling role for three and a half years, my predecessor,
who was my boss, set me up to take her position,
and I was like, what, ah, be of good courage, Dave.
Don't think that you're only twenty three years of age.
Don't think that maybe there are other people who would
love to be in that position and it looks like
you leapfrogged them. Forget about that. Focus your attention on God.
Don't focus your attention on the natural. Don't focus your
attention on the stress that will likely come and I
know that it actually did. Don't focus on any of
those things, but focus squarely upon the fact that God
led you in the past and he will lead you now.
Just keep his word. The Lord, thy God is with thee.
Whithersoever thou goest, do you believe it? Make it a
great day peace. Thanks for joining us listening. Friends.
Speaker 1: Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by
every word that comes from the mouth of God. This
has been your daily portion with El David Harris. Make
it a great day, Yeah,