Christian Devotional – April 15, 2023

Joshua, Day 16

Partial obedience. Read Joshua chapter 16.

The israelites started out strong, but as time went on, they found themselves lacking the follow through they needed. They started dividing up the land among the tribes, which was exactly what was intended, however the tribes failed to completely overtake the lands that they had been given. They all did just enough to be able to live comfortably, but they did not completely drive out the people that were living there before them. Unfortunately, that was in disobedience to what God had told them to do. They partially obeyed, but in the end, their partial obedience turned out to be complete disobedience.

Unfortunately, we can often do the same. We see God give us direction and purpose, and recognize things that we are supposed to be doing. We do some of them, most of them, portions of them, however, we don’t complete them.

The issue becomes, our partial obedience to God results in complete disobedience. We are to follow through to the end exactly what God gives us to do. What do we need to go back and complete for him in order to be truly obedient?