Date: January 02, 2022 | Series: From Pastor’s Desk | Number: Vol. 10, No. 35
Beloved: grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to the very first week of this new year, year 2022, and pray that God will cause you to experience tremendous success in all your ways all through it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now someone may ask, “Is it even possible for one to experience success in all his ways in this world that is full of all kinds of surprises and challenges?” Yes, it is possible, if one knows what to do. For example, as we read the book of Joshua, we see that this man led the Israelites that Moses brought out from Egypt from victory to victory in bringing them into the land of Canaan, which God had promised to give to them. He had success all the way. Therefore, he fulfilled his ministry of giving every one of the people their inheritance, in that land that was flowing with milk and honey.
But what made Joshua, who was not a priest or a prophet but a soldier, successful in this manner? What made him have success all the way? It was his devotion to the word of God. God had told him this when he was taking up the job of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land: “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; 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.” (Josh 1:8NIV)
What did Joshua need to be prosperous and successful, according to that bible text? He needed to take the word of God seriously. First, he was to keep reading, studying and declaring it to himself and to the people he was leading. Second, he was to continually ponder on what it says, day and night. Why? It was so that he may be careful to live according to what it says. That means if we are going to practise the word of God, we must give ourselves to carefully meditating on it all the time. We must continually meditate on it until it becomes a part of us and we cannot just act otherwise.
At any rate, Joshua’s instruction was to personally take the word of God seriously. And did he do so or not? He did! That was, in fact, why he was able to succeed and prosper in leading the people into their inheritance, as God had instructed him to do. And towards the end of his life, he gave the people the same instruction God had given him, saying, “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left.” (Josh 23:6NIV)
So, regardless of who you are, where you live and what your honest vocation is, if you too will take the word of God seriously this year, if you will give yourself to learning what it says about how you are to live, to meditating on it and to practising it, you will go from victory to victory in all your endeavours in the year. Yes, there will be challenges and trials in the year, just as there will be opportunities to do big and great things. But it is only those of us who take God’s word seriously in a very personal manner that are guaranteed to have success all the way, just as Joshua did.
Will you, then, make up your mind to take His word seriously this year, so that you can be successful and prosperous in all your ways? As for me, I have made up my mind to take His word seriously all through the year because I want to win all the time in it. And I know that He will enable me to do so by His Spirit, for He has said that if we are willing and obedient, He will make sure we enjoy the best of the land (Is 1:19). If you too are willing to do as He has instructed, then, He will make sure you have all that it is going to take to please Him and to be victorious all the time. And may you be continually strengthened to do so, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Happy New Year!
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