Title: Barefoot With God/Topic: Intimacy with God

Today’s Reading: Joshua 3; Joshua 4; Joshua 5; Joshua 6; 1 Corinthians 4

Scripture: Joshua 5:15
15 The commander of the LORD's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

Observation: I've always thought it strange that God would ask that Joshua (and Moses before him) to take off their sandals because the ground they were standing on was holy. I had a different thought as I read it today: God wants us to have full contact with all things holy. He doesn't want anything between us and him. His desire is that we be close, intimate, and cleansed (made perfect) by experiencing what holiness is. Shoes protect our feet from dirt and from injury. We need no such protection from God, yet our desire is often to hide from God and his holiness because we feel unworthy of it and are afraid of it (remember the reaction of the Israelites to hearing God speak to them from the cloud at Mt. Sinai? They told Moses to speak to God for them so they wouldn't have to listen to his voice anymore; it frightened them).

Application: Embrace holy moments. I am changed when I am in the presence of my holy God. Don't try to conceal or hide anything from him. When I find myself in a place where I sense the holiness of God, that is the time to “bare my feet” and come into his presence with no protection, no cover, and humbly experience his power to restore and change me. He wants me to be intimate with him, not covering anything but exposing myself fully to him.

Prayer: Father, give me more and more holy moments where I experience your complete wholeness and restoring power in my life. I want no protection from you. May I experience “full body contact” with your Holy Spirit.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.