Consecrate Yourselves

Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
Joshua 3:5

Get ready, get set…GO! We are all familiar with that as the beginning announcement of a race. Get ready means to get yourself loosened up and ready to run (focus), get set means to get in your blocks or your starting position. Then, of course, you are off to the races! So far in the book of Joshua the people have been in the get ready phase of their journey. Now, with this command, Joshua is saying to them “get set!”  Now is the time to get into the starting position.

The starting position was a position of consecration. Consecration means to set apart, specifically to be set apart for God’s use and to position yourself in total surrender and focus on Him. This would have been a familiar command to the people as they had been given some very specific practices and acts of consecration. There were ritual cleansings, washings, fasting, and other traditions they were to keep as acts of concentration. This was all in an effort to position themselves to be a part of the work God was about to do.

This is a great challenge for us. It is time for us to consecrate ourselves. It is time for us to make the conscious decision to set ourselves apart for God’s use, to get rid of the distractions, and to focus entirely on Him. Jesus modeled this for us when He was baptized, when He went away to spend time in prayer alone, and especially when He went to pray alone in the garden just before His crucifixion. These were times where He was setting Himself apart. For us that might mean baptism, prayer, Bible reading, and fasting. The point is that we intentionally make room for God in our life and remove anything that is keeping us from fully surrendering to Him.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” God has called us to this life of consecration, it is our job to respond in faith and in action, and then God finishes what He has called us to. Let’s make it a point to consecrate ourselves so we can join in the even greater work God wants to do in us and through us.
 
Pastor Matt