Joshua 1-2, 6, 8, 10-11, 23-24

Over the years, I’ve grown to love fishing with my dad and my kids. The more I fish, the more I find myself interested in the fish itself. 

Did you know that a wild Atlantic Salmon has a very interesting life? It starts in a river, migrates to the ocean, and then heads back to the river where it started after a couple of years. Throughout their whole live they will travel over a thousand miles. The hardest part of their journey is when they head back to lay their eggs. That distance alone can be up to 200 miles.

Why is that a big deal? Those 200 miles are all swimming upstream against the the flow of the river. Can you imagine how hard that must be? That’s a lot of water pushing back against the fish!

There are times in our life where it feels like we are swimming upstream. Maybe everything that we do seems to be difficult. Maybe someone is pushing back against us, or something that needs to be done just can’t get finished. 

Have you ever felt like life is pushing back on you? How do you feel when that happens?

In Joshua 1, Israel is getting ready for something big: God is going to lead them into the the promised land! The entire area ahead of them, from the desert around them to the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea, it is all going to be theirs! Israel is finally getting out of the desert that they have been wandering in for 40 years… except there’s something standing in the way: there are already people in the promised land. Israel has to physically take the land, battling armies and defeating kings. Not just once either, but many, many times.

Can you imagine looking ahead of you at the promised land and realizing how hard it was going to be to take it over as your own? You might feel nervous, disappointed or even frustrated. Israel was like a Salmon at the beginning of their journey up a river. It was going to be hard.

But God reminded them of His promise to Abraham and to Moses: “I will give you every place where you set your foot” and “as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. Never will I leave you or abandon you!” (Josh. 1:3, 5) God didn’t say he was going to take away all the hard stuff ahead of Israel, but he did say that He will be with them and give them the land that he promised.

God makes this same promise to be with you too: in the good times and the really difficult ones, He will be there with you!

Pause and think: has God ever showed up in your life in a difficult time? How did you see him work in that situation?

God encourages Israel with a little advice for their journey upstream into the promised land. He says: “obey the law I gave you through Moses; do not turn to the right or to the left; think about it day and night.” (Josh. 1:7)

Think back to that Salmon from the beginning. If it were to try to swim upstream sideways, would it be more or less difficult for the fish to get where it was going? It would be a lot harder. God says the same thing to Israel and to us: I have a plan for you and a path for your life! I’ll be with you, but it’ll be hard sometimes. Just stay focused on me. Don’t do your own thing or follow what the world says. Don’t turn to the right or the left but keep your eyes focused on my Word. Stay focused on me!

Be encouraged! This story shows us that God is with you wherever you go! And he gives his Word, the Bible, as your guide!