The Lord Stands By Us

No one will be able to stand their ground against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you. (Joshua 1:5)(NLT)

As Joshua stood at the threshold of the Promised Land, God spoke to him: "I will not fail you or abandon you" (Joshua 1:5). Like a steadfast friend and a faithful father, the Lord promised to stand by Joshua as he took on the leadership of Israel. Just prior to the dawning of the church, this scene was repeated. Jesus' disciples were gathered on a mountain in Galilee, probably largely unaware of what challenges lay ahead now that Jesus was going to return to his Father. But Jesus assured them, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). Let us go forward with the great assurance that the Lord will always stand by us.

ALMIGHTY GOD, we praise you for the assurance that you are with us and will never fail us. We ask that the words you spoke to Joshua would be heard by all your people who feel lonely or fearful, including those in positions of leadership. Thank you, faithful Lord. Amen.

(from the Praise and Worship Study Bible-Tyndale House)

The Cost of Sanctification

"May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely..." (1 Thessalonians 5:23)


When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God's point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God's purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? And after He has done His work, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to God just as Jesus did? "For their sakes I sanctify myself..." (John 17:19). The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God's perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.


Are we prepared to be caught up into the full meaning of Paul's prayer in this verse? Are we prepared to say, "Lord, make me, a sinner saved by grace, as holy as You can"? Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see John 17:21-23). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything that is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit's work in us?

Why Do You Go?

Some go to church to take a walk; some go there to laugh and talk.

Some go there to meet a friend; some go there their time to spend.

Some go there to meet a lover; some go there a fault to cover.

Some go there for speculation; some go there for observation.

Some go there to daze and nod; the wise go there to worship God.

---C. H. Spurgeon