The word practice brings up all sorts of memories for me. When I was a little girl my Mom would ask, “Have you practiced today.” I knew she was talking about the piano. Most often the answer was “no.” I’m sure she was hoping the answer was yes therefore, she could avoid the pain of listening to an hour of running scales. As I grew older, there would be many things in life that I would need to practice, yet no one ever asks, have you practiced your faith today? However, if our faith is to grow as God desires, we must practice it obediently.
Obedient faith is practiced by doing all that God commands. So many times, we don’t understand the purpose of the command, but when we obey anyway and trust God for the results, we are practicing obedient faith. Growing obedient faith must be done according to what God commands. Many times, we look at our lives and the Bible and think God’s ways are just not working for us. We begin reading books, asking others, and listening to someone who has found a new easier way to get the results. That is putting man’s ways in place of God’s ways and that is a lack of faith in God.
One such person who practiced obedient faith in the Bible is Joshua. When you look back on the life of Joshua his faith in God was paramount. We first see Joshua in Exodus 17:9. He is appointed the commander of the army of Israel to fight the Amalekites. They are on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. God was training Joshua to take Moses’s place after the death of Moses. We see no wavering of his new position, and he had already proven himself faithful or God would not have chosen him. I’m sure many other men were older and more familiar with battles, but God chose Joshua. He believed God to be his protector and obeyed without hesitation.
Exodus 17:9 “And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.”
Next, we see Joshua when he goes up the mountain with Moses. God had instructed Moses to come up and meet with Him. This is where he receives the Ten Commandments. Joshua goes part of the way but is not allowed to go to the top with Moses. He stayed where he was left alone. Several days pass, but we see nowhere that Joshua gets curious and seeks to disobey. He waited patiently for the man of God to give the next instruction. He believed in God and obeyed.
Exodus 24:13 “And Moses rose up, and his minister Joshua: and Moses went up into the mount of God.”
Now we see the great event that separates the faith of Joshua and Caleb from those who were supposed to be strong in the Lord. God told Moses to send 12 men to spy out the land of Canaan. One leader from each tribe. Men who were supposed to be the example for their tribe, men who should have been full of faith in God. They had seen all the great miracles of the past and now they were almost home. This was the land God had prepared for them to inhabit. It was their promised land. However, in Numbers 14, we see the report of 12 spies. Out of the 12, only Joshua and Caleb are encouraged and excited about the land God has promised. It was a beautiful and bountiful land, but the others saw the people as too big and too many for them to tackle. Joshua and Caleb saw the God of the land and were ready to take it. Because of their belief, they were the only 2 of the 12 that were allowed to enter the promised land. All those who were adults at that time, who murmured in fear died in the wilderness. Again, Joshua’s faith was obedient and in God alone.
This is just a glimmer of the great man Joshua. What made him great, he listened, believed, and obeyed. Joshua could go against the others and place his faith in what God said when he was in a huge minority because he had learned to trust all along the way. Obeying in the little things increases our faith to obey in the big things. What are the little things that you are doing where you are not following the leadership of God? You must be obedient in the small stuff if you don’t want to doubt in the big.
Numbers 14:6-9 “And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes: And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceedingly good land. If the LORD delights in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it to us; a land which flowed with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defense is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.”
