<b>Whose Side Are You On?</b> devotion for 04-MAR-11

&lt;b&gt;Whose Side Are You On?&lt;/b&gt; devotion for 04-MAR-11

Selection Taken From:
A Year with God by R.P. Nettelhorst

Make this the year you let God's Word "dwell in you richly"---and marvel at the results! Each entry in this 365-day devotional features Scripture verses in which God speaks, accompanied by insights and applications to enhance your understanding. Learn what God says about hope and fear; perseverance and quitting; companionship and isolation; and more! 384 pages, softcover from Nelson, Copyright 2010.


Whose Side Are You On?
It came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, "Are You for us or for our adversaries?"
So He said, "No, but as Commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, "What does my Lord say to His servant?"
Then the Commander of the LORD'S army said to Joshua, "Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so.
Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the Loin said to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets." - Joshua 5:13-6:4 NKJV

People like to believe that God is on their side. There is an abiding sense in most of us that if we believe what's right and do what's right, then God will have to back us. Wasn't God on the side of the Israelites when they went into their promised land? When Joshua asked the angel of the Lord that question, God's angel told him no.

The answer was puzzling. Weren't the Israelites God's chosen people? Hadn't he just rescued them from Egypt? How could God not be on their side?

God is on his own side. Joshua asked the wrong question. The real question for Joshua and the other freed slaves was the question for all of us: do we expect God to support our position and not that of our opposition? Or, to put it another way, do we expect God to back us, or do we expect to back God? God isn't on "our" side, whether it's a basketball game, a legal battle, or a war.

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln met with a group of civic leaders. One of them asked, "Mr. President, can we pray that God is on our side?" And Abraham Lincoln responded, "I won't join you in that prayer, but I'll join you in a prayer that we're on God's side."

Asking if God is on our side is the wrong question. The question we need to ask is more difficult: Are we on God's side?