Heartmelt

So it was, when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, that their heart melted; and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. – Joshua 5.1

38 years ago today, on a snowy mountaintop, in a small rural church called Jump Off Baptist Church, my heart melted as I saw my beautiful bride walk down the aisle. 38 years later the sight of her still causes my heart to melt in love.

Oh wait, that’s NOT what this passage talks about.

This passage talks about another kind of heartmelt. In this heartmelt the people of Canaan lost their courage when they saw the successes of Israel. They were terrified when the saw the power of God.

How different things are today. There has been a time for the last 300 years or so when there has least been a general respect for the things of God. There was a certain ‘fear of God’ even in the general culture. There was a sense of right and wrong and that sense of right and wrong generally came from principles found on the word of God.

But those days are gone.

Now we are the ones whose hearts are melting in fear. We are the ones cowering in the face of a changing world which has less and less regard or respect for God. We are the ones experiencing heartmelt.

Instead of the enemies of God seeing power of God and losing heart the people of God see the power of the enemies of God and lose heart today. We need not lose heart though no matter what we may see or sense around us. The same God who parted the Jordan River is our God and today and we can be assured that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

It is way past time for us to realise that the victory is ours and stop being cowed by the things we can see. Instead, let us be emboldened by the things we cannot see.