"Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed. But just as every good promise of the Lord your God has come true, so the Lord will bring on you all the evil He has threatened, until He has destroyed you from this good land He has given you. If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord's anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land He has given you." (Joshua 23:14-16)

There is a marvellous promise within this passage - that God is faithful and trustworthy and that His promises never fail. But do NOT make the mistake of pigeon-holing God into a worldly perception as a benign and only-loving God - our God is one of power and might (something I've really been discovering as I read through the book of Joshua) and He is a just God. His wrath and anger SHOULD terrify the wits out of us. This is the God who created the universe - He is NOT One to be taken lightly. This is why we approach Him with fear and awe and trembling, and the fact that as His children, we can approach His throne with confidence is an honor and blessing beyond comprehension.

Of course, this is still something that I'm learning and struggling through, because I just find it really hard to understand sometimes. This wrath of God - it's not something I grew up associating with God and to be perfectly honest I think I'm a little afraid of thinking of God in this way. I confess that the sugarcoated half-truths offered to me all my life during Sunday School (BUT don't get me wrong - God is DEFINITELY the definition of love and patience and kindness and all the good things in this world and beyond; what I'm saying is that He is not these things to the exclusion of His other characteristics) have been incorporated into my schemas. However, I trust that the Holy Spirit will allow me discernment and understanding as He sees fit to reveal to me, and I know with confidence that God will not allow me to know Him in such a lopsided and incomplete manner.

Okay, I have no idea where those last couple of sentences came from. I have no idea where this confidence comes from. Well, I do. It's from the Holy Spirit. It's crazy how God is always so intimately involved in the tiny details of my life. I trust that He has everything under His perfect control and timing, and I can sleep easy knowing He holds the exact number of my remaining "tomorrows" in the palm of His very capable hand.