Consecrated for Christ (Joshua 3:5)
Then Joshua said to the people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow, the Lord will do wonders among you.
—Joshua 3:5
I love that verse. There is obviously a clear historical context behind it. God is about to move powerfully among his people and lead them across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. But I love the exhortation given in preparation for that moment: “Consecrate yourselves.” Consecrate yourselves. Remember this as a picture of setting yourselves apart, examining your hearts, and being holy before God. Why? Because tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Get ready for God to work among you.
Do you not want to live that way? I want to live that way. I want to live that way every day. I want to live that way every morning. I want to wake up, consecrate myself before the Lord, and pray, “God, purify me. God, sanctify me. I want to see you work in powerful ways all day today.” And so you consecrate yourself toward that end. We continually pray, “God, set me apart. Make me holy.” I pray this for my life, for my family, and for the church. God, we want to see wonders. We want to see you work powerfully in our family. We want to see you work powerfully in our church. So we consecrate ourselves, we set ourselves apart, and we long to see demonstrations of your glory.
Today, I am especially burdened when it comes to the Unreached of the Day in the Joshua Project app. I open it and see the Turks in Turkey—56.4 million people with hardly any followers of Jesus. The percentage listed there is 0.00. I know there are a few Turkish believers, and I know there are people laboring for the spread of the gospel there. Still, there are very few relative to 56 million people. I want to lead us to pray, in part, that God would do wonders in Turkey. May he set apart people for the spread of the gospel there, consecrating them for the wonders of salvation he might bring about in Turkey.
God, we pray that you would work powerfully in our lives, through our lives, in our families, and in our churches. Make us holy, we pray. Prepare us every day. Set us apart every day as we continually consecrate ourselves before you.
A Prayer for Turkey
And then, God, we plead for wonders to be done in Turkey—for your glory and for your salvation to spread throughout Turkey, for Turks to be reached with the gospel.
God, we pray for people to be saved from death to life. Please work in Turkey. Consecrate those who are followers of Christ, there—Turkish believers and missionaries alike. Set them apart and do wonders among them today and tomorrow. Show yourself strong through them. And God, send out more. Set apart more men and women—from the church I pastor and from other churches—to go to Turkey. Show your wonders through the proclamation of the gospel from their mouths, I pray.
God, we pray that your power would be made known in our lives daily as we consecrate ourselves before you. May your glory be made known throughout the world, especially in places like Turkey. Consecrate your people toward these ends, we pray, in Jesus’s name. Amen.
