What if I fail?

There is a second question Joshua is dealing with and a question I believe every leader deals with:

What if I fail?

What if I don't have the spiritual and moral strength? What if I blow it in one unguarded moment? It’s bad enough to have a spiritual meltdown alone, but when you are responsible for other people you know how many will be impacted by your sin.

For Joshua this was not a hypothetical question. Numbers 20 records the story of Moses’ fall. The people of Israel were grumbling…again. This time they wanted water. So God told Moses to speak to a rock and water would come out of it. But Moses was angry with the people and struck the rock twice. God told the leader, “Because you did not trust me enough to honor me as holy…you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Numbers 20:12). Later, Moses pleaded with God to change His mind. But God said, “That is enough. Do not speak to me anymore about this matter” (Deuteronomy 3:26).

Do you know when that incident happened? Commentators place that at the fortieth year after the Exodus. It was time to enter the land! Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it? Moses had put up with the grumbling people for forty years. That has to wear on you. He just kind of lost it for a moment. Yes, in one unguarded moment, Moses lost it all…and we can too.

A few years ago I was driving home from work. It was a beautiful Pennsylvania evening right around Christmas. Snow covered the ground and that night was lightly falling. Lori and our four children were home. Our house looked as warm and inviting on the outside as I knew it to be on the inside. And out of the blue, just before I pulled into the driveway, it was as if God stopped the car. I sat outside knowing that the people I loved most on this earth were in that house and heard God say in my spirit, “You realize that one unguarded moment could disqualify you from pulling into that driveway and walking inside.”

Joshua had seen Moses lose it and he did not want to go down that same path. God gives him the remedy.

Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let the Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
-Joshua 1:7-8

Our guard is always the Word of God. We must read it; discuss it; meditate on it; and most importantly, carefully “do everything written in it.” Don’t miss the results. Obedience to God’s Word produces true prosperity (ownership of spiritual qualities) and true success (a life in step with God).

Michelangelo, the great painter, understood the need for the best tools. So he always made his own brushes with his own hands. He did not entrust the making of his tools to others. As a believer, we are our own tool. We must keep ourselves sharp, clean, and ready for use by reading and applying God’s Word to our life. A. B. Simpson said, “God is not wanting great men, but He is wanting men who will dare to prove the greatness of their God.” We will demonstrate the greatness of God only when we do what is written in His Word.