Joshua 10:14 “There was no day like that before it or after it, when the LORD listened to the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.”

In order to get a clear picture of what I am going to say you should go back and read Joshua chapter 9 and the first 13 verses of chapter 10. Israel, specifically Joshua, made a big mistake right off the bat after they had entered the Promised Land. They mistakenly signed a treaty with a city which they should have destroyed because they didn’t take the time to seek the Lord about it. Gibeon becomes an ally when they were in fact living inside the land which the Lord told them to wipe clean of the foreign presence.

But then we see how the Lord used this to incite the other cities and people of the land to attack Gibeon and eventually come after Israel. Perhaps the Lord knew that the people of Israel would need a little incentive to attack and wipe out the pagans and unbelievers who threatened their existence in this land God had promised them. I don’t believe God planned for Gibeon to trick them into a treaty, but He allowed it to happen and then used the circumstances to escalate Joshua into action.

Have your children (or you) ever made a mistake? Have they ever made a decision that they know the Lord would not approve of? Of course! Haven’t we all? But God, once we come back to him and surrender to His Will, can take that mishap, that circumstance, and use it to teach us and direct us. Now God is not asking us today to go in and possess a physical land. But He is asking us to stake a claim in the name of Christ in a dark and foreboding world.

Your children can learn to stand up for righteousness. Just as Joshua and the people of Israel stood with Gibeon because of the treaty (they had given their word to them to protect them) your children can learn to stand for the cause of Christ. Even when they may have first missed it, they can allow the Lord to redirect them into a holy stand for Him.

Mom and Dad, will you do that? Will you take that stand? Will you surrender your mishaps to His divine Will and allow Him to make lemonade out of lemons? He will!