About 6 weeks ago I started reading a book. Little did I know it’s pages would stir and awaken something in me. Some books have a tendency to do that over other books – I don’t know whether it’s timely, or if it’s language with a different edge that brings something alive in a certain way. This book has done that for me.
The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson – I highly recommend it.
It’s a challenge, a call, a manifesto on prayer. Bold expectant prayers, not begging God to do what he’s already done, but standing in the gap and praying his word into every situation.
The start of the book retells the story of Joshua – one of the greatest accounts of circling. Joshua the circle maker. Joshua circled Jericho, and defeated an entire city by being obedient and listening to God.
It was this part of the book that has been stuck in my head for weeks now. A simple line that had me wonder what I’m circling. Am I circling a promise or a problem?
The question was asked “What is your Jericho?”
My raw honest answer: “sickness” – I want to see sickness defeated in my family. That’s my Jericho – that’s what I want to see coming down with a loud bang and a thunderous cheer as it goes.
Mark Batterson shed an incredible light for me in that moment.
What if we stop seeing Jericho as a problem, but instead view it as a promise? After all, God had promised Joshua the land, so it was his for the taking. It was a promise he was circling not a problem at all. If we have learnt anything about God at all up until now, it’s that’s he’s always faithful to what he has promised. It might play out differently than we intended or expected but we can be sure He is the greatest promise keeper around.
How you view Jericho will determine how you walk around it.
If Jericho is a problem – the walk can feel long, disappointing, fearful, overwhelming, frustrating and full of doubt.
But if it’s a promise – if you believe with all your heart God will deliver because he keeps his word, then your walk changes. It’s confident, expectant, exciting, full of faith, hope and energetic. With each step, with each lap you are closer to the promise. He will surely do it.
I have had a change in mindset. I’m not circling sickness. I’m circling healing. I wish I could tell you how much this has changed my walk.
But I challenge you to try it.
Instead of seeing the problem, turn to the word and find the promise. What does He say? Then cling to it, hold onto it and get excited about how it’s going to play out. Even when circumstances don’t look great -when the opposite seems more true than His truth, keep circling. Keep your eyes fixed and keep going.
The irony in all of this of course is that I’m sitting writing this from a room in a Children’s hospital. I know what it’s like to see something in your heart and see something different with your eyes. I’m looking at my Jericho right now (she’s sitting playing mine craft on her iPad), but I know God is doing something. I honestly trust the bigger picture, his perfect timing that I know will make me smile one day when it all makes perfect sense, because it will.
I still have my questions. The bigger thing though I have at the minute is confidence in a God I know I can trust with all of my heart.
No matter what you’re facing at the moment – how you view it will determine what you do about it. Gods view and perspective is the best one we could ever have.
Lean in.
Hear his heart.
Learn his ways.
Trust his word.
He is so faithful and is cheering you on into your promised land.
Eyes UP look OUT 