Joshua 3

My missions team's motto is Strong and Courageous. We are reading through Joshua, and the Gospels as preparation for our missions trip to Togo. As I was reading in Joshua 3 today, God really spoke to me. Joshua 3:7-17 says,
"And the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’” Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.” So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground."
To set the stage, before this had happened, God promised Joshua and the Israelites the promise land. When they came to the Jordan River, I cannot imagine the disappointment. The Jordan was in its flood stage, which means the water was very deep, and the current was strong. But God told Joshua to tell the carriers of the Ark of the Covenant to step in the water, and the Israelites will be able to cross. The priests must have been so scared because one step into the water can toss you into the current. But they went past their "breaking point," obeyed God, and the Jordan was cut off, to create a dry path for the people to walk on.
In my life, throughout the past year or so, I have come to my breaking point several times. There have been events physically, spiritually, relationally, academically, etc. that have caused me to feel stretched to the limit. The picture I have in my mind of this is a rubber band, being stretched to its maximum. I don't know if you have ever felt that way, but I know when I do, I feel as though I cannot go any further, or I will be completely overtaken by the current of life. But God calls us to go one step further, to get past all the fears, and press on one more step, into the water. It may be dangerous, our pride may become bruised, it may cause some things to break off of us, but in the end, that is when the miracle happens. It is when we go beyond what we "feel" we can go and take that one last step. Can you imagine if the priests didn't take that step into the water? The Israelites would have been stuck on the one side of the river.
This really challenges me to go a step further, when I am stretched thin and am pressured from all sides. I know that on my missions trip, my team and I will be stretched like that rubber band, and we will be challenged more than ever. But the key thing is, will I take one more step? Because miracles will happen, but only when we are fully committed to the things and purposes of God.