The Joy of Walking by Faith

Edited by Steve Fountain from a Message on September 2, 2012

We are pushed out of necessity to make decisions every day — many of which we feel not fully informed to make — and we can fear the outcome.  You might be tempted to ask, “Can there be joy as we walk by faith?” Walking by faith feels like we are in a haunted house and we are at the mercy of what we cannot see.   So how is it possible to walk by faith joyfully?

Walking by faith is less scary, if we know with whom we walk.  Knowing God is so crucial because two other elements or our walk rest upon this truth.  If we know God well, then we will take the time to pray.  If we know God well, then we will lean wholly upon His grace. 

But what does it mean to know God well? 

In Proverbs 1:7, Solomon writes, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” A growing relationship with God will not stop there. 

Proverbs 3:5 also says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”  Solomon keenly sees a connection between trust and love.   You cannot  love the Lord with all your heart if you do not trust him, and you cannot trust him with all your heart if you do not love him.  Love and trust are inseparable. 

In Joshua 10 we find Joshua courageously and joyfully walking by faith because he knew his God.

1.  God is faithful.

In verses 1-5 five cities in the south mobilize and attack Gibeon.  Their confederacy was orchestrated in a way to make sure they put a stop to the Israelite advance. Gibeon dispatches a message to Joshua not to ‘relax their hand’ (v. 6) in a pivotal moment.  In other words, they were asking Joshua to keep his word and keep the alliance.   The awareness of the faithfulness of God is actually what moved Joshua to honor a covenant with Gibeon.  Joshua learned from his previous sin, and now he was ready to walk by faith.

In Joshua 10:7 we have a remarkable response from Joshua.  We read, “So Joshua went up…” In other words, Joshua — providing a great example of Proverbs 3:5 —   kept his word.

Because Joshua believed that God would have him to honor the covenant, he mobilized his troops, marching through the night to surprise the enemy.

2.  God is a warrior.

Our God as a warrior may not appear to be a warm and cozy truth at first glance.  Please note the promise given to Joshua in verse 8. “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands.  Not a man of them shall stand before you.”  When God says, I have given them into your hands he is saying that he will fight the battle for you.  God moves even when we cannot see him moving. Notice commentary at the end of verse 11.  “There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.”

We should notice that as God is fighting for Israel, he is also doing it through their sword.  We are tempted to only look at the miracle of the hailstones, and forget that God works in the circumstances, too.  Jesus is the warrior-king who defeated the greatest enemy that we face.  Jesus defeated sin and death.  If Christ died to save you, he ever lives to keep and protect you. If you are ever tempted to fear, then your God is too small.  And if you are prone to fear, when a moment of insecurity takes over, take a look at your redeemer. He died for you and loves you with an everlasting love, and Jesus is the warrior who fights for your good.  Jesus Christ is the warrior-lamb who will finally bring justice upon the earth, who will bring death and sin to its predetermined conclusion.  All of His enemies — from Satan to all who refuse to bend the knee to Jesus Christ — will face the day when every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

3.  God Listens.

We might be stunned by the miracle of the sun and moon standing still, but the narrator is actually more amazed by the fact that God listened to man.  

Listen to the commentary in verse 14, “There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord obeyed the voice of man, for the Lord fought for Israel.”

Now, is this a normal occurrence with us?  Could we go out this morning and ask for a cloud to appear in the sky or the sun to stop shining, and God would grant it?  No. But we have this confidence that God hears us because he loves us.  Walking by faith does not have to be scary.  It does not have to feel like a haunted house. Because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, and therefore, God listens to us.  This is the greatest of miracles—that God would listen to little people like us.

The truth is, we cannot walk by faith if we don’t know God who we walk with.  We don’t want to just know “statistics” about God; we want to know His heart as we see him move through the pages of Scripture and in our Steps of Faith.  This is real joy!