How to pray? Bible prayers.
Joshua mucked up by not praying . He basically authorized terrorists (Gibeonites) to live among the Israelites by failing to consult God before striking a deal. Lesson: To avoid failure, we ought to pray (the subject of my last post).
But I don’t want a downer. Who hasn’t tripped up? According to George Barna, approximately 100% of Americans fail significantly at some point in their life. Actually, I’m lying. That’s not a George Barna statistic. It’s a Rom. 3:23 statistic. And it’s experience. How many times have I failed? At least a zillon. And that’s just counting starting in 2013.
Here’s the takeaway to the bummer story. Joshua owned up to his mistakes and turned them into a winner. When fellow Canaanites realized the Gibeonites had “sold out” to the invading Israelites, they ganged up to lynch them. The Gibeonites, with a contract whose ink wasn’t even dry yet, cashed in on their new alliance and asked the Israelites to defend them. Joshua set aside his smarting and used his smarts: he vanquished all the other Canaanites. The Gibeonites had tricked him, but he used his embarrassment to his advantage.
God’s power promptly materialized. Not only did they utterly smash their enemies, the Israelites witnessed the third most extraordinary miracle confounding the laws of nature (#1 Jesus walked on water, #2 Moses separated the Red Sea): On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.” — Josh 10:12 NIV.
This gave them time to continue winning the war. The enemies couldn’t escape in the dark of night.
The upshot: prayer turns failures into successes!
I could list quite a few personal examples for your punchline! By the way, I love your picture of one child ministering to another. Some of the most powerful prayer I’ve witnessed was by a 5-year-old!
in the mouth of babes!
Saweet… very good
Thanks
Oh boy, did you hit on one of my favorites!!! Years ago I read that part of Joshua and it stuck with me – I mean really stuck with me. The NKJV I believe, says they didn’t seek the Lord’s counsel. Now, it is something that not only do I do, but I try to pass on to my children. I always tell them to pray about it (and I express to them I’m not just saying that, I mean it, seek the Lord’s counsel first and I have even explained to them what this part of Scripture says). This is some real stuff, but it’s needful.
I was a missionary pastor in Guatemala for 16 years and someitmes I forget to consult the Lord too!
Reblogged this on Food for Thought.
“Prayer turns failures into successes!” – Amen!
Praise Him! Always so good to see your face on this blog!
beautiful article and very interesting to read! 🙂
thanks!