Scripture Memory Challenge: Week 1

Do you want to live the Promised Land life, but you're wandering in the wilderness? Are you looking for Glory Days but feel stuck at the Jordan?

Congratulations! You're headed in the right direction with the Glory Days Scripture Memory Challenge.

This week we'll be memorizing Joshua 1:9, a verse that reminds us that not only has God given each of us power, but also he has promised to walk beside us in every circumstance.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Here is what you need to know about the walls of Jericho. They were immense. They wrapped around the city like a suit of armor, two concentric circles of stone rising a total of forty feet above the ground. Impenetrable.

Here is what you need to know about Jericho’s inhabitants. They were ferocious and barbaric. They withstood all sieges and repelled all invaders.

Until the day Joshua showed up. Until the day his army marched in. Until the day the bricks cracked and the boulders broke. Until the day everything shook—the stones of the walls, the knees of the king, the molars of the soldiers. The untoppleable fortress met the unstoppable force.

Mighty Jericho crumbled.

But here is what you need to know about Joshua. He didn’t bring the walls down. Joshua’s soldiers never swung a hammer. His men never dislodged a brick. They never rammed a door or pried loose a stone. The shaking, quaking, rumbling, and tumbling of the thick, impervious walls? God did that for them.

God will do that for you. Your Jericho is your fear. Your Jericho is your anger, bitterness, or prejudice. Your insecurity about the future. Your guilt about the past. Your negativity, anxiety, and proclivity to criticize, overanalyze, or compartmentalize. Your Jericho is any attitude or mind-set that keeps you from joy, peace, or rest.

Jericho.

It stands between you and your Glory Days. It mocks you and tells you to take your dreams back to the wilderness. It stands like an ogre on the bridge of progress. It is big; it is evil. It blocks your way.

And its walls must fall. To live in the Promised Land, you must face your Jericho.

It’s not always easy. But God’s word to Joshua is God’s word to us: “Be strong and of good courage” (Joshua 1:6). Do not heed your fear. Do not cower before your woes. Take the land God has given you to possess.

Joshua did not go forth hoping to win. He knew that God had already won.

The same can be said about you and your challenge. God does not say, “Bob, break your bad habit.”

He says, “Bob, I have broken the bad habits of your life. Receive the blessing of my victory.”

Life will always bring challenges. But God will always give strength to face them.