The Paralysis of Inaction – Josh. 18-20
Have you ever felt like your life has stalled? You know something needs to be done but you don’t know what to do. Or maybe you know what to do but you don’t know how to do it. Rather than getting up and doing something, you sit and wait, in hopes that God will give you detailed instructions. You essentially paralyze yourself by your lack of movement. Meanwhile, God is asking, “Why are you not moving?” You may or may not hear him, but he’s asking nonetheless.
This is a common scenario among believers. We find ourselves sitting on the sidelines waiting for God to write a message across the sky. That message never comes. Yet our paralysis isn’t God’s fault. It ours. Rather than live by faith, we want to live by instruction. We want the LORD to direct every detail, like a parent dictating to a child. We’ll see in today’s text that seven of the 12 tribes of Israel were in the same boat. They were waiting on Joshua to come to them when they should have gone to him.
The seven tribes are an example for us to learn from. They are an example of what happens when we sit around, waiting for instructions that are not coming. We become paralyzed by our own inaction. That’s not living by faith; it’s living by sight.