Submitted by Lara Cook
See, I have set the land before you. Go in
and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after
them. Deuteronomy 1:8
This New Year I have been
seeing something on the internet about choosing your word for 2017. I am
totally against making a New Year’s resolution but the thought of choosing just
one
word that I could use to describe what I want from this new year is
very appealing. My word for this year
would be Possess. There is a whole list of things I would like to
possess this year, and by possess, I really mean own, or take responsibility
for. This past year I have let some things slide that I would like to recover. It is easy to
give in to hopelessness, exhaustion, busyness, and in the process, give up some
very important parts of ourselves; and that makes Satan happy. I would like to take back the parts of me that
I have allowed Satan to steal and hand it all back to God - physically, mentally, relationally, and spiritually.
In the passage above, God is
calling Joshua to take possession of the land that He has already claimed for
him. As Sam said this past Sunday, taking
possession of anything requires you to take a step. It requires you to move forward into battle,
even if you are paralyzed in fear. The
beginning of victory is always in our mind.
Overcoming anything requires faith to step out in confidence. God had already claimed the land for Joshua,
but he still had to fight for it. God
likes us to have some skin in the game so that we are invested and
committed.
The Bible tells us in John 10:10 that
The thief (Satan) comes to steal, kill, and
to destroy. Make no mistake about it, he will rob you
blind of everything he can and all too often we help him. This year make it your desire to fight to
become stronger, healthier, in a deeper relationship with God and to speak life
and love into earthly relationships.
Taking possession of the lost areas of your life will require courage in
the face of fear. It will require
strength in the face of exhaustion and weakness. It will require victory in the face of
defeat. It will require you to take a
step – even if it is one foot at a time.
Fight the enemy for your ground. Own
it and take possession of the ground your Father proclaimed your and gratefully
surrender it back to Him.
Therefore understand today the Lord your God is He who goes before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you. (Deuteronomy 9:3)
