The 3 Essentials: All You Need for Success in Life by Casey Treat Page A
Authors: Casey Treat
Ads: Link
business, wealth, and relationships. In fact, in the last few verses of the book of Job, it tells us the Lord blessed Job with twice as much as he had before and lists an amazing collection of his wealth.
Too bad Job didn’t “pluck out his eye,” which was causing him to sin, to shrink back, and to compromise. If he had been able to recognize that even in his abundance he was expecting great catastrophe, he could have changed his outlook on life to something more positive. He would have been able to prevent the tremendous loss he experienced, and simply continued to move to a higher level in every area of his life, but his accidental vision had become so normal to him; he didn’t even know he possessed such a negative one until it was too late.
All of us must get sincere about our vision and what we are truly focusing on. We need to get serious about the promises of God and make sure the ingredients of our visions are of those promises and not of the stuff of the world. Just like Job, it is possible to change and to see a future with God all over it and His will being done in our lives. Let’s not wait until we are in a place of despair and destruction. Let’s purposefully focus on our faith (instead of our fears) and learn to meditate on a vision of hope and prosperity.
Day and Night
Joshua is a much better example for us than Job. He is a man who was able to embrace the huge vision God had for the nation of Israel and to lead them into their Promised Land. It did not come without some work, however.
In the first chapter of the book of Joshua, we see God giving Joshua the mandate to lead His people after Moses had died. As we read what God specifically instructed Joshua, we can see he probably had a few fears and some self-doubt about his ability to become Moses’ successor. In just a few verses, God repeats Himself three times commanding Joshua to not be afraid and to be strong and very courageous. Then God gives him the formula on how to accomplish that confidence: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8).
God needed Joshua to walk in extreme authority and confidence as a leader, and He provided him the way to achieve it. He told Josh to keep the entirety of his focus on the promises and ways of God (after all, it was the people’s refusal to do so forty years ago that caused them to be wandering aimlessly in this desert for so long). Joshua meditated on God’s Word day and night, he spoke it out of his mouth every chance he got, and he envisioned his way to be full of prosperity and good success. How do I know Joshua heeded God’s advice? Because we can see the fruit of it in his life.
In chapter 6, Joshua leads the people to cross the river Jordan, and they come up to the first city they are going to have to fight. It’s Jericho, and it’s a massively fortified city with strong inhabitants. It’s the same city that caused the Israelites to run like grasshoppers four decades before. This city is ready to engage in battle. But God says to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hands, its king and the mighty men of valor” (Joshua 6:2).
Joshua could have said, “Are you crazy? Look at that big city and those big walls! They’re so thick they’re riding chariots around on top of them. We are just a band of desert gypsies—how are we going to defeat them ?” But this kind of response did not even occur to Joshua. His vision would not allow it. He was so drenched in the confidence of od’s Word that he was able to embrace the command immediately. He understood the importance of vision, and that if he simply “saw” the victory, he would be able to achieve it. And he did.
If we will keep our focus set on God and His Word, we will be able to achieve everything we know
Too bad Job didn’t “pluck out his eye,” which was causing him to sin, to shrink back, and to compromise. If he had been able to recognize that even in his abundance he was expecting great catastrophe, he could have changed his outlook on life to something more positive. He would have been able to prevent the tremendous loss he experienced, and simply continued to move to a higher level in every area of his life, but his accidental vision had become so normal to him; he didn’t even know he possessed such a negative one until it was too late.
All of us must get sincere about our vision and what we are truly focusing on. We need to get serious about the promises of God and make sure the ingredients of our visions are of those promises and not of the stuff of the world. Just like Job, it is possible to change and to see a future with God all over it and His will being done in our lives. Let’s not wait until we are in a place of despair and destruction. Let’s purposefully focus on our faith (instead of our fears) and learn to meditate on a vision of hope and prosperity.
Day and Night
Joshua is a much better example for us than Job. He is a man who was able to embrace the huge vision God had for the nation of Israel and to lead them into their Promised Land. It did not come without some work, however.
In the first chapter of the book of Joshua, we see God giving Joshua the mandate to lead His people after Moses had died. As we read what God specifically instructed Joshua, we can see he probably had a few fears and some self-doubt about his ability to become Moses’ successor. In just a few verses, God repeats Himself three times commanding Joshua to not be afraid and to be strong and very courageous. Then God gives him the formula on how to accomplish that confidence: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8).
God needed Joshua to walk in extreme authority and confidence as a leader, and He provided him the way to achieve it. He told Josh to keep the entirety of his focus on the promises and ways of God (after all, it was the people’s refusal to do so forty years ago that caused them to be wandering aimlessly in this desert for so long). Joshua meditated on God’s Word day and night, he spoke it out of his mouth every chance he got, and he envisioned his way to be full of prosperity and good success. How do I know Joshua heeded God’s advice? Because we can see the fruit of it in his life.
In chapter 6, Joshua leads the people to cross the river Jordan, and they come up to the first city they are going to have to fight. It’s Jericho, and it’s a massively fortified city with strong inhabitants. It’s the same city that caused the Israelites to run like grasshoppers four decades before. This city is ready to engage in battle. But God says to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hands, its king and the mighty men of valor” (Joshua 6:2).
Joshua could have said, “Are you crazy? Look at that big city and those big walls! They’re so thick they’re riding chariots around on top of them. We are just a band of desert gypsies—how are we going to defeat them ?” But this kind of response did not even occur to Joshua. His vision would not allow it. He was so drenched in the confidence of od’s Word that he was able to embrace the command immediately. He understood the importance of vision, and that if he simply “saw” the victory, he would be able to achieve it. And he did.
If we will keep our focus set on God and His Word, we will be able to achieve everything we know
Similar Books
