The NIV 365-Day Devotional Reading Planنموونە

Victory Cry

Picture yourself at your niece’s final soccer game of the season. If they win, they will be in the playoffs. The team has been behind the entire game, and they look exhausted. But just in the last few minutes they’ve tied the score. Now the seconds are ticking away. The game is almost over. The parents are white-knuckled. The fans are holding their breath. Your niece makes a great move and takes the ball down the field. You’re shouting at the top of your lungs, “Go, go!” She makes an incredible pass across the field. You know this is it . . . just one goal away from victory.

The Israelites had waited 40 years to shout the victory cry. Now they’re at the goal. For six days they had followed God’s commands and had marched silently around Jericho, with only the sounds of trumpets blown by the priests. Now it was the seventh day. Imagine the suspense . . . would God himself appear to tear down the walls? Would the inhabitants of Jericho surrender without a fight? Would the Israelites make the right play? Then God gave the go-ahead: Sound the trumpets; shout for victory, and the walls of the city will collapse. Just as God promised, “the trumpets sounded, the army shouted,” and victory was theirs. The Israelites conquered the city of Jericho, finally claiming their rightful place in the promised land.

The Israelites must have felt so relieved to claim a victory after so many years of waiting and preparing. Can you relate? Have you been feeling that you are in a holding pattern, that your circumstances are not changing? Do you long to have resolution, to have even a small victory? God is working even while you are waiting. Think of this time of waiting as a process that will eventually culminate in a victory. In the meantime, remain faithful and know that God is there with you, preparing you for the battles, goals and victories to come.

Taken from NIV Women’s Devotional Bible