Scripture Memory Challenge: Week 3

You've now memorized Joshua 1:9 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17. You're half way through the Glory Days Scripture Memory Challenge!

Let's dive into week three!

This week we'll be memorizing a verse that reminds us that we are children of God, and we have an inheritance to claim.

Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.  - John 1:12

We are joint heirs with Christ. We share the same inheritance as Christ! Our portion isn’t a pittance. We don’t inherit leftovers. We don’t wear hand-me-downs. We aren’t left out in the cold with the distant cousins. Christ’s portion is our portion! Whatever He has, we have!

Think what this means. Jesus cashed checks out of a boundless account. Grudges didn’t corrode Him. Despair didn’t control Him. Mood swings couldn’t touch His joy. His conviction was bulletproof. He was the Fort Knox of faith. And when we give our hearts to Him, he hands us his checkbook.

Then how do we explain the disconnect? If we are coheirs with Christ, why do we struggle through life? Our inheritance is perfect peace, yet we feel like a perfect mess. We have access to the joy level of Jesus yet plod along like dyspeptic donkeys. God promises to meet every need, yet we still worry and fret. Why?

I can think of a couple of reasons.

We don’t know about our inheritance. No one ever told us about “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe” (Eph. 1:19). No one ever told us that we fight from victory, not for victory. No one told us that the land is already conquered. Some Christians never live out of their inheritance because they don’t know they have one.

But now you do. Now you know that you were made for more than the wilderness. God saved you from Egypt so that he could bless you in the Promised Land. Moses had to remind the people that “[God] brought us out from there, that He might bring us in [to Canaan]” (Deut. 6:23). There is a reason for our redemption too. God brought us out so he could lead us in. He set us free so he could raise us up.

The gift has been given. Will you trust it?

Ah, therein lies the second explanation for our weaknesses.

We don’t believe in our inheritance. That was the problem of Joshua’s ancestors. They didn’t really believe that God could give them the land. The Glory Days of the Hebrews could have begun four decades earlier, a point God alluded to in his promise to Joshua: “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses” (Josh. 1:3). The reminder? I made this offer to the people of Moses’ day, but they didn’t take it. They chose the wilderness. Don’t make the same mistake.

Joshua didn’t. Much to his credit he took God at his word and set about the task of inheriting the land.

Do the same. Receive yours.