Read: Joshua 7

I was in a choir as a teenager. We were quite good, and won lots of competitions. For one of our first competitions, we rehearsed for weeks and put everything we had into our performance. We won, and were given the opportunity to perform in a theatre. In our opinion, it had been an easy win, so instead of practising hard for the show, we were lazy, over-confident in our previous talents. The big night came, and our performance was awful. We were out of sync, people had forgotten their parts – it was a total disaster!

In this part of the Bible, Joshua and the Israelites are in a bad place. They’ve just been humiliated in battle, God is displeased with them, and a man called Achan has disobeyed God and brought trouble on the people. What a contrast with the chapter before! Joshua 6 is the famous story of the fall of Jericho, in which Joshua and his army walk around the walls seven times, blow trumpets and through God’s power, the walls of the city fall and Jericho is defeated. (The full story is here.)

Before Jericho’s destruction, Joshua asks God about it and follows his instructions exactly. Before trying to conquer Ai, Joshua doesn’t ask the Lord anything – he makes the decision himself. He even sends a smaller army because it’s a little town and he doesn’t want to tire out his troops.

What causes his change of approach? At Jericho, Joshua is entirely reliant on God, but by the next battle, he seems to forget that he’s not the one responsible for the victory. He’s on a high from success, and riding on his own confidence.

This challenges me because I sometimes see it in my own life. In my work for God, I start off earnestly asking him to guide me, but as he’s faithful to me, I can easily forget that my successes are because God answers my prayers, not because of me. When things are going well, I often focus on just getting things done, asking him to bless my plans rather than waiting to hear what his are.

I’m learning that, above all, God wants me to be dependent on him, rather than on myself. In my decisions, and when I’m sharing God’s goodness with other people, am I letting Jesus take the lead?