5 Lessons from Joshua for When Our Faith is Tested

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Joshua is popularly known as Moses’ second in command who takes over and leads the Israelites into the Promised Land after Moses’ death. While Joshua is considered one of the Bible’s greatest military leaders for leading the seven-year conquest to the Promised Land, his road wasn’t easy and his faith was tested. Despite these circumstances, Joshua was a man who showed living faith toward God and gained victory against overwhelming odds. Joshua demonstrated the type of faith we need to enable us to overcome the challenges and difficulties we face today. Joshua courageously led the children of Israel out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land, and from his bold example we can learn many lessons. Like Joshua, we can boldly leap into the waters and march with shouts around the walls of any challenge, because we know that God who parts waters and tears down walls is the greatest and only power in the world. Here are five lessons from Joshua for when our faith is tested.

Be Strong and of Good Courage

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One of the primary themes of the book of Joshua is “Be strong and of good courage” (Joshua 1:6-7,9,18). While the book of Numbers shows that Israel lacked faith to enter the land of Canaan, God inspired Joshua with courage and faith to lead Israel to meet the enemy face to face, trusting God to give them the victory. Of the 12 men selected to spy out the land of Canaan, only Joshua and Caleb brought favorable report. While the other 10 spies focused on Canaanite giants and cities with strongly fortified walls, Joshua and Caleb focused their minds on the power of God to fulfill His promises. Joshua was truly a great biblical leader.

God Gives Us Victory Over the Problems We Face

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The lesson from Jericho, recorded in Joshua 6:1-27, helps us understand how God wants to give us victory over the problems that we face. While most of us have heard about Jericho, few of us have put the principles shown to work in our lives. We all deal with issues every day of our lives – depression, loneliness, addiction, defeat and despair are just a few to name. Jericho stands for all those things that we can’t get victory over on our own but will hurt others and eventually destroy us if we don’t. These are the things we hide in our lives: our fears, defeats, anxieties and outright deceit. God knows there is only one solution: lead them into battle against them.