I heard someone say that knowing and believing God is a continuous cycle.  The more you know God the more you believe Him.  The more you believe God the more you know Him.

It’s true!  The more I’ve gotten to know God the more I believe Him to be who He is.  I look back on my life and see where He’s taken care of this situation or saved me from that particular problem.  I think back to times when He’s provided financially or healed sickness.  My mind is filled with page after page of memories where God has been faithful.  Throughout my life, the more I’ve come to know God the more I’ve believed.   With each step of faith, He proves Himself over and over.

Read Joshua 4:1-7

At the beginning of the book of Joshua, just as he was getting ready to lead the people to claim their promised land, Joshua promised that the Lord would do wonders (Joshua 3:5).  The Israelites believed him.  Why?  They had a long history of belief. Their parents and grandparents had been teaching them about God’s statutes and His provisions since the day they first inhaled air.

Read Deuteronomy 6: 1-9

God commanded the Israelites to remember His statutes and teach them to their children.  They were to teach them diligently (v. 7).  This was not a Sunday morning hour ritual!  This was the life of each man, woman, boy, and girl.  From the time they raised their heads in the morning until the moment they closed their eyes to sleep, they meditated on the commandments of God. For the Israelites, sharing stories of God’s provision with their children and teaching God’s commandments were their highest priority.

So it’s no surprise that today, as we read in Joshua 4, we find the Israelites standing in the middle of the Jordan gathering stones of remembrance.  They were to erect these stones for their children.  These stones were to serve as a memorial so that when their children asked, they could tell them the story of how God cut off the waters of the Jordan and made a path to their promised land.

Why was this important?  Because the more you know God the more you believe Him.

Joshua certainly understood this.  He had followed alongside Moses experiencing the miracles of manna and Mount Sinai and forty year old clothes that looked brand new.

In Exodus 17:8-16 as Moses triumphed over the Amalekites, God gave some interesting instructions.  God said Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua (Exodus 17:14).

Oh yes, Joshua knew God and believed Him.  God made sure of it.  God provided page after page in Joshua’s book of remembrance of His faithfulness.  With each new page, Joshua’s faith grew.  When the time came for Joshua to lead the Israelites to claim their promised land and God told him that He would do wonders, Joshua knew He would.

What memorial stones have you erected for your children or the next generation?  Joshua 4: 6 says when your children ask.

Are you giving them reasons to ask?  Are you living out a life of faith in front of your children?  Are you sharing stories of God’s provision and His miraculous power?

For the Israelites, it wasn’t just a religion.  It was their life.

1 Peter 2: 4-5 tells us that as believers, we are living stones.  Our lives are memorials to the world that Jesus came to save sinners, died on a cross for our sins, and now lives so that we can live.  We are living stones to the world that Jesus sets the captives free.