Cling to Him

"Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9

Today as I listened to the audio portion of "Believing God," the Bible Study I am currently doing, I heard Beth Moore discussing the significance of Joshua 1:9. The overall idea behind this verse is that God will never fail us so there is no need for discouragement or fear. The Hebrew word for fail is "rapah". This word means "to be slack or weak, the basic idea of relaxing the hand." So, in a sense, this verse is saying that God will never relax His grip on us. He will never let us go. He's got this!

In response to God's unfailing grip, our responsibility, according to the verse, is to be strong and courageous. The word strong is "chazaq" in Hebrew and it means "to be bound fast, attached, or to make firm." God will never let us go but we play a big part in this. We must hold tight to the One who has us in His grip. We can't just flippantly hold on with one hand or one finger, we need to grab onto Him and bind our arms around Him so that nothing can get between us, not even the seemingly innocent things. We need to wrap our lives in and around Him and intentionally stay that way. 

For family devotions tonight, we read the story about Mary Magdalene's visit to Jesus' tomb. The children's version of this story says that when she saw that Jesus was alive, Mary ran to him and threw her arms around Him. She wanted to cling to Him and never let go. That story made me immediately think of Joshua 1:9 and the information Beth Moore shared today. So, I discussed with Dylan the importance of clinging to Jesus. I told him that I want to be like Mary! I want to cling to Jesus and hold on for dear life. I know Jesus will never let me go but I want to do my part as well! 

Today I am thankful for the reminder that God has me in His grip. I've known its true but sometimes its easy to forget that He will never fail me or leave me or get angry with me like people have a tendency to do. I needed that reminder today! I needed it tonight as well.  I am flabbergasted by the thought really --God promises to be with me, never leave me, love me no matter what, and never loosen His grip on me. And all He asks in return is for me to cling to Him. Wow, we serve an awesome God!