Battle of the 'Flesh'
📖Daily Reading
Joshua 8-10
🎥 Video
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
Joshua 10:25 “Don’t ever be afraid or discouraged,” Joshua told his men. “Be strong and courageous, for the Lord is going to do this to all of your enemies.”
The book of Joshua, at least the first several chapters are all about conquering and war. If we continue with the analogy that ‘we’ are the promised land then the conquering that happens must be of our fleshly desires and our hearts desires. To go through the process or shift of being ‘ruled’ by things we desire to desiring God. God and His ways taking over and moving into our hearts. In the 10th chapter the Israelites battle the southern armies and kill the five southern kings. Now there is A LOT more in this book, I totally encourage you to read all of this on your own as well and allow God to speak to your heart as only he can. But I will share an aspect that struck me as I was reading.
Since I am reading the Bible to also learn how to practically apply this to my life and hopefully for you too, I can’t help but see the correlations to our human (lower/southern) selves and our five senses that ‘rule’ our existence. I also can’t help but think how Tolkein must have also been inspired when writing the Lord Of The Rings and The Battle of the Five Armies. Anyhoo, I digress, I am a fantasy and adventure movie fan and a LOTR nerd so my brain things in anolgies! Let’s get real for a minute - and put any ‘christianese’ and pretend piety aside- we humans want and need to know ‘what’s in it for me?’ or we just won’t do it! Am I right?!? Are you picking up what I am putting down? Speaking of putting down, to have any kind of lasting ‘success’ in our faith journey and/or journey of transforming aspects of our lives and habits, we must put down any pretenses we have, we have got to get real and brutally honest with ourselves and others! Bring it into the light. We can’t change or deal with what we don’t acknowledge.
We have got to face ourselves and see the strongholds in our flesh or five senes we have so that we can ‘wage war’ and engage in the process of changing. We must also be strong and courageous as Joshua encourages. We must believe and have faith and move and act according to God’s way of living and know that the Lord is going to help us. Day by day, moment by moment, new experience by new experience and victory by victory our flesh learns that living by God’s ways bring true life, vs the destruction that living only by the flesh and being ruled by it’s desires will bring. There is no mistake that it feels like and is a real battle that we are in. We can get discouraged, tired and overwhelmed when we look at it from a purely human perspective.
But when we add a higher purpose to it or for me God - life and the process of ‘becoming’ is an adventure. I love using powerful words that I can use to my advantage in my journey. I also encourage you to choose and use words wisely and intentionally. The word venture means ‘a risky or daring journey or undertaking’. This describes the journey of transformation and sometimes our faith walk- am I right? But when we ‘add’ God to it - it becomes a process we can trust and have courage and strength for - an ADVENTURE! I use this word a lot it helps me to remember to stick with it and have courage and push through the fear! It also helps me to turn my fear into excitement, I know God has something more for me worth pursuing - it is HIM and learning to live this human life fully surrendered, as much as I am able to and an adventure that has no point of arrival. That is something that makes me excited to wake up each morning, to ‘rise and shine’, and gives me energy and the ‘will’ to keep fighting my battles.
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
My battles will mostly likely be different than yours - but how can you take this perspective today of embracing the process of change as an epic adventure vs. just a battle? Also, take the courage and strength of victory that God is offering, if you not only ‘add’ him to it but see that doing it all for Him is the ultimate way to also ‘satisfy your longing to fulfill your desire to do what is also what best for you’?
📖Tomorrows Reading
Joshua 11-14
Coaching Opportunity
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