Joshua 17:16 –
The descendants of Joseph responded, “It’s true that the hill country is not large enough for us. But all the Canaanites in the lowlands have iron chariots, both those in Beth-shan and its surrounding settlements and those in the valley of Jezreel. They are too strong for us.”
Talk about issues with faith! They just crossed a river on dry ground and tumbled the walls of Jericho, now they are afraid to fight. It seems odd that someone witness to events like this could have waning faith. Here we don’t have these huge miracles to view and yet I think many today have stronger faith. We have minor miracles and “odd” coincidences that we rest our faith on, not major ones.
How many times have we been in similar situations? Have you ever been faced with something daunting that you believed prayer could not help? I know each and every day I struggle with that. “Your will be done” is the problem. I can imagine sitting in the hills contemplating attacking a stronger foe and wondering if we were in God’s will. Look how many times the Israelites acted without God’s will and failed. Take the first assault on Ai that failed miserably. I too would also doubt if His will was in my actions.
This brings out so many issues with us and our interaction with God. We have seen instances where prayers we answered in minutes and others where prayers remain unanswered 20 years later. How many “unanswered” prayers were answered but never acted upon like these people? How many were outside of God’s will? How many times did we not pray “hard enough” or “right?” This is one of those rabbit holes that is difficult to understand and I am still struggling with it every day. And yes we can change God’s will by prayer, just don’t know how to do that successfully.