Pray & March

I wanted to share my other favorite part from Steven Furtick's book Sun Stand Still.

The title of the book comes from Joshua, chapter 10.  That's where Joshua's army is battling the Amorites and God tells Joshua not to be afraid because He is giving the victory to Joshua.  Joshua's army attacks at dawn and fights all day.  Unfortunately, the victory isn't cemented by the time the sun starts to go down.  On page 14, Furtick writes:

"Most of us - even really good Christian people - would have called it a day.  I've done all I can do.  I've exhausted every option.  I've given it all I've got.  But Joshua wasn't most people.  He refused to go out like that.  That wasn't the way it was supposed to end.  This was where his audacious faith began. 

Joshua sized up the situation, summoned all his available courage, and delivered one of the most gloriously unorthodox prayers in the entire Bible:

O sun, stand still over Gibeon,
O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon. (verse 12)

Now can you see why I love this story?  Joshua had the audacity to ask God to make the sun stop in the sky.  To freeze time on behalf of his people."

God did it.  He stopped the sun.

Fabulous as that is, I just included it because you need the background to understand my real favorite part, from page 172 & 173.  There, Furtick confesses that he missed an important point on his first reading of Joshua 10.  He goes back and reviews the events for us:

"First, there's God's sweeping promise to Joshua:

Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand.  Not one of them will be able to withstand you. (verse 8)

Two verses later we see God start to fulfill his own promise.  Enemy soldiers flee.  Israel gives chase.  God joins in by hurling down hailstones on the fleeing Amorites.

And a couple of verses after that, Joshua prays his epic, sun-stopping prayer.

But hold up a minute.  Between the promise and the miracle comes an easy-to-overlook piece of information:

After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. (verse 9)

An all-night march?  Lugging weapons and supplies through enemy territory in the dark?  Twenty miles uphill (scholars tell us) only hours before the biggest battle of the campaign?

Wow.

Suddenly I had a flash of insight about prayer.

If you're going to pray for God to make the sun stand still, you'd better be ready to march all night.

Joshua's big prayer wasn't a cop-out.  He didn't ask God to make the sun stand still while kneeling in the comfort of his tent.  He did it on his feet after an all-night march....

If you're going to have the audacity to ask God for something, you'd better be ready to act.  Audacious prayer must be tethered to practical obedience.  Or else it's not faith.  It's just wishful thinking and positive mental energy.  No wonder so many of our prayers aren't answered.  We pray for a miracle, but we fail to make a move."

Makes you want to pray / go / live, doesn't it?