When God Says, “Get Up”

When God Says, “Get Up”
Saturday, March 07, 2020
by Dr. Paul Chappell

“And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.”

Joshua 7:10–11

Joshua was distraught when after Israel’s victory over the great city of Jericho, the small village of Ai defeated the Israeli army in battle. He went to his knees, seeking God’s answer to what had happened. God told him to stop praying and do something about the sin in the camp. While there is a time and place for prayer, there is also a time for action. And one does not substitute for the other. When we have a direction from God, delaying in our response is disobedience.
Alexander MacLaren wrote, “No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. Accomplished, they are full of blessing, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it.”

The reality is that we often find ways to delay what we should be doing rather than dealing with it head on. We may cloak our excuses in spiritual language, but that does not change our disobedience. In most situations we do not need further direction from God, but to get up and do what we already know He has spoken. Delaying what God has commanded us to do always produces unpleasant results.
The tasks of today will not get easier by putting them off until later. Tomorrow truly never arrives.

Today's Growth Principle:
There is no spiritual gift of procrastination, and the opportunities of today will never come again.