OUR DAILY BREAD READING (Published Daily by Our Daily Bread Ministries)
FEBRUARY 18, 2022
READ: Joshua 1 (Focus vs. 1-9)
MEMORY VERSE
“Be strong and very courageous.” Joshua 1:7
BACKGROUND
During our tour of an aircraft carrier, a jet fighter pilot explained that planes need a 56-kilometer-per-hour wind to take off on such a short runway.
To reach this steady breeze, the captain turns his ship into the wind. “Shouldn’t the wind come from the plane’s back?” I asked. The pilot answered, “No. The jets must fly into the wind. That’s the only way to achieve lift.”
God called Joshua to lead His people into the “winds” that awaited them in the promised land. Joshua required two things. Internally, he needed to “be strong and very courageous” (Joshua 1:7); and externally, he needed challenges.
This included the daily task of leading thousands of Israelites, facing walled cities (6:1–5), demoralizing defeats (7:3–5), Achan’s theft (vv. 16–26), and continual battles (chs. 10–11).
The wind that blew in Joshua’s face would lift his life as long as his thrust came from God’s instructions.
God said he must “be careful to obey all the law . . . do not turn from it to the right or to the left . . . meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful” (1:7–8).
Are you resolved to follow God’s ways, no matter what? Then look for challenges. Fly boldly into the wind and see your spirit soar.
By: Mike Wittmer
INSIGHT
A repeated theme in the Bible is the centrality of the Scriptures in the lives of people of faith (see Psalm 1:1–3). In Joshua 1, this crucial principle was stressed when leadership changed from Moses to Joshua.
David spoke similar words to Solomon who succeeded him as king:
“Observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go” (1 Kings 2:3).
By: Arthur Jackson
APPLICATION
Why are challenges necessary for a successful life? How might God use a present problem to lift you?
PR’s (PASTOR RICHARD) TAKE
Planes can coast after they reach a certain altitude. Like-wise there is an altitude, believers can reach in the Lord that will allow them to “coast”. Are we willing to pay the price to reach that altitude?
“Calm seas never made a skilled sailor’” Franklin D. Roosevelt
PR’s RE-EMPHASIS
Walk in obedience to him…so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go”
PRAYER
“Father, life is hard, and it often hurts. May my problems lift me closer to You.”
*YOUR TAKE? 
TODAY’s HYMN/WORSHIP/PRAISE/GOSPEL
“I’M PRESSING ON THE UPWARD WAY”
I’m pressing on the upward way
New heights I’m gaining every day
Still praying as I onward bound
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith on heaven’s tableland
A higher plane than I have found
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground
My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay
Though some may dwell where those abound
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground
So Lord, lift me up, and let me stand…
I want to live above the world
Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled
For faith has caught a joyful sound
The song of saints on higher ground
So Lord, lift me up, and let me stand…
I want my tomorrow to be better than my today
I want the way that I relate with God
The way that I communicate and interact with him
To be on another level
So Lord, lift me up, and let me stand…
…If somewhere somehow you strayed
You’ve trespassed, you’ve gone contrary to God’s words
There’s still a higher ground for you to go to
Be encouraged, to do more for God than you did yesterday
So Lord lift me up…
Lift me up…
READING THROUGH THE BIBLE THIS YEAR (THIS WEEK)
PSALMS 31-37
THE BOOK OF GALATIANS