GOING INTO BATTLE
Today's reading:  Joshua 11-15

Joshua 11 is about victory.

God was with the Israelites.

God directed their every move.

God soundly defeated each and every one of their enemies...when the Israelites did what God asked them to do.

Obey.

God had instructions for them to follow leading up to each battle.  God told them how to go about waging war on each army, seldom if ever the same way twice.  God gave them specific rules to follow in regards to the plunder.

If they did what He said, they won.

If they didn't, they remained hounded and harrassed by their enemies.

Don't you feel like an Israelite?

The issues you're struggling with, are they returning over and over again?  Do you think you've got them whipped only to see them crop up when you least expect it?  Are they tying you down, keeping you from going as far as you believe God wants you to go, hindering His glory being visible in you?

And then there are the things you have put aside.  The things God has walked you through dealing with.  The temptations and habits that no longer plague you.  The issues that are firmly and solidly in your past.

I'll guess for some of us obedience has paid off.  For the rest of us, we're wishing we'd had listened a little more closely to the strategies of war God spoke to our hearts!