All In, All Yours: Stepping Into God’s Peace and Promises by Heidi Lee AndersonSample

Obstacle #4: Your Past Defeats

What wound from yesterday still stings today—a failure that scarred, a rejection that burned, a loss that lingers? Try as you might, no matter how much aloe vera you slab on that sucker, the past still grips tight and ripples into the future.

You’re not alone.

In Joshua 10, after the Israelites had defeated the southern kingdom of Canaan, it was time to turn their eyes north. Half of the Promised Land down, another half to go!

Yet these northern kings would not so easily roll over and play dead. They were much stronger. More strategic. And had much more at their disposal.

In fact, King Jabin of Hazor, the head honcho of the northern kings, sent a call to arms to his subordinate rulers. Sure enough, “all these [other] kings came out to fight. Their combined armies formed a vast horde. And with all their horses and chariots, they covered the landscape like the sand on the seashore” (Joshua 11:4, NLT).

Before we pick up our swords and join the battle cry, it’s worth noting that while these other kings reported to King Jabin, his supervisor was none other than the Pharaoh in Egypt.

You catching this? As if to add coals to the fire of an already intimidating battle ahead, the last time the Israelites had chariots charging at them, a Pharaoh had led the charge. He came out with “six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them” (Exodus 14:7, NIV) in hopes of enslaving God’s people once again.

Make no mistake: Your current battle may have a connection to your past too—mistrust from old abandonment, fear from past bad news, trials resurfaced from former opposition. The Pharaoh you thought you had escaped long ago is rearing its ugly head anew, wanting once again to be your master.

Don’t panic, and don’t give up. Just like the Israelites, you’re armed and equipped for this battle. You stand as “a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3, NIV) with the Lord Almighty as Commander. You’re covered from head to toe in protective armor, and using God’s mighty weapons, you have all the “divine power to destroy strongholds” (Ephesians 6:10-17; 2 Corinthians 10:4, ESV).

So when that old slave driver comes at you again, with new tactics to get you under its thumb, remember you’re already “under God’s mighty hand” (1 Peter 5:6, NIV), and neither you nor I are going back to Egypt. For “if the Son sets you free, you are truly free” (John 8:36), and ain’t nothing gonna reverse that status.

Today’s travel tip: Yesterday’s battles can’t jeopardize today’s victory in Christ.