Whose Side is God On？
Whose side is God On? You are not wrong if you say, “Ours” See Romans 8 below:
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
God is for us and wants us to succeed. Though Romans 8 assumes we are succeeding in living for God. That is for sure our best for this life. So, we need to go deeper.
Next, let’s see what God says in Joshua:
13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord[e] have for his servant?”
15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Now, these verses could be construed as being in contradiction. First, if you see what the commander says in Joshua 5, you can know that he plans for Joshua to win.
Whose Side Is God On? Really?
Why does he say neither?
We really need to join God’s team and not have him choose our team. God is for us, but the way for us to succeed is to listen to the one who created us and gives us life. He is the only one who knows the beginning and the end. It will not due to have us lead God. How foolish would that be?
He knows every hair on our head. God knows us better than we know ourselves. He then sees that what we need most is to love God. Close readers of his blog will know that my great grandfather gave up on God when his wife died tragically. At this point, if he chose God, his life would have worked out and his descendants, like myself, would have been much better off.
God always wants us to win. Do we always choose the way to win? Choosing God will always lead us to win. I did not say choosing religion will always work. We need God, and he will lead us to fellowship and even authority, but what we need foremost is God. I have found tremendous success in just believing that God’s design is worth trusting. Believing something that is true will always help.
Can We Choose God’s team Even When It Is hard? Let’s do it.
This will save us. Having faith in the goodness and power of God is believing in something that is good and will always make us well. When we lose faith, we start believing in things that are not true like we can make it on our own. We don’t even know why God made us on our own. How could we know how to win? Money does not make us winners. Marrying a wonderful person will help any of us, but it cannot make us winners unless we find the one who made us and join his team.
In Romans 8:28 right before God says he is for us, we see this:
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose
Neither me nor my great grandfather can see why bad things happen to us in the moment. We lack perspective to see the whole. God is for us and knows we need him foremost. Let’s choose Him.
