<b>Watch Where You're Going!</b> devotion for 02-MAR-11

&lt;b&gt;Watch Where You're Going!&lt;/b&gt; devotion for 02-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.


Watch Where You're Going!
People of Israel, that's what the LORD has said to you.
But you don't have good sense, and you never listen to advice.
If you did, you could see where you are headed.
How could one enemy soldier chase a thousand of Israel's troops?
Or how could two of theirs pursue ten thousand of ours?
It can only happen if the LORD stops protecting Israel and lets the enemy win.
Even our enemies know that only our God is a Mighty Rock.
Our enemies are grapevines rooted in the fields of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The grapes they produce are full of bitter poison; their wine is more deadly than cobra venom.
But the LORD has written a list of their sins and locked it in his vault.
Soon our enemies will get what they deserve— suddenly they will slip, and total disaster will quickly follow. - Deuteronomy 32:28-35 CEV

The strongest person doesn't always win the race. At Jericho, God defeated the Midianite army of tens of thousands with barely three hundred Israelite men. The Midianites facing Gideon had no reason to think that they wouldn't be victorious against so small an army. But they lost all the same. But then there were times when Israel's forces severely outnumbered the enemy, and they lost all the same too.

Israel faced judgment. God had been warning his people for years that they would make mistakes. Nevertheless, those who stood arrayed against God's people didn't have a chance. In the end, no matter how good they looked, no matter how invincible, they were no better than Sodom and Gomorrah, the two cities that God had destroyed with fire and brimstone in a single day. God reassured his people that no matter what, God would avenge them. He was keeping track of all the wrongs they had done against his people. We may never see them judged, but we can trust that God will eventually call them to account.

Winning and losing are in God's hands, not in our own. We like to imagine we control our destinies, that our fate is ours to chose. But God is the one actually in charge, and no matter the odds, good or bad, God's way wins out.