How to Be Blessed By God
Diligence in Purity

Scripture: Joshua 7:12

That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

          Up until chapter seven, Joshua and the Israelites seemed unstoppable.  Joshua 5:1 tells the story:  Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

When God is on our side and we are totally surrendered to Him, we, indeed, are “unstoppable,” blessed beyond measure!  But, as we read in chapter seven, there is one thing that can defeat us…“us”!  If you take time to read chapter seven in its entirety, you’ll see that Israel wasn’t defeated by an enemy army.  The enemy army was only a tool in God’s hand!  God allowed this small army of Ai to defeat Israel because a member of the Israeli family had sinned against God.  A man named Achan had taken some of the bounty that was supposed to be devoted to the Lord, for himself.  God told Joshua, as you read in our scripture for today, that Joshua must be very diligent to destroy the bounty that was stolen by Achan.  The balance of chapter seven is the detail of how Joshua and all Israel diligently destroyed Achan and all the stolen goods.  The last verse of the chapter tells us: “then the Lord turned from His fierce anger.”

This series is entitled: “How to Be Blessed by God.”  This story lets us know, clearly, that being diligent in our purity is critical to our blessings from God.  Do you have any ongoing and unchallenged impurities operating in your life?  We all have things we are working on.  These don’t stop God’s blessings as long as we don’t stop working on them!

“Father, search my heart for impurities and make them clear to me.  I want all to be clear between us. I ask this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.”