"JOSHUAB"

It was on the evening of Thursday 23rd December when a group of us played Scrabble after Christmas dinner.  At the start of Scrabble each player grabs a handful of seven word tiles from the bag to begin.  I took out seven letters and whilst I sorted them out I managed to spell out the name Joshua and still had a letter B left.  So I stuck it on at the end to make JOSHUAB.  I was very surprised that I got this word and showed everyone else and we had a laugh.  There is a book in the Bible called Joshua so I was quite intrigued to read if there was a message in there for me.  Since the word I had was JOSHUAB I thought it looked like Joshua8 and decided to check out Joshua chapter 8.  Here's how it started at verse one:

"Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land."

I've recently been going through some difficult times with the bad weather affecting my income and some challenging issues with matters of the heart.  I've had to make some difficult decisions as well and overall it has been quite a discouraging time.  But the part of the verse which really stood out to me is at the start where it said do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.  The rest didn't apply to me directly as it was about a time of war where God said to Joshua to bring people up for an attack.  However, Joshua was at that time facing a challenging time of having such a big task to do, to take an army to conquer another city.  But because the Lord assured him everything was ok he went ahead and did it and everything went in his favour.  So I believe this verse did not appear out of the Scrabble bag by coincidence.  I believe there was a message on it for me and God is telling me that although I face challenging times and I might be scared, that He will still be with me and when I do things His way, everything will be ok.  =)

I hope I managed to encourage people with my short sharing.  It was unplanned and it was certainly not shared with any pride on my behalf, but what I boast of is God's power.  I share as a person who is sinful, broken and lost, yet God can still speak to me.  If God can speak to me, He can speak to you too.  But are you listening or aware of His presence?  =)