And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you. — Joshua 3:5
Not long ago I was working on one of the books I have been writing for Another Well. I had the idea for that book for nearly a year. I knew what I wanted to say. I believed God had placed it on my heart. But every time I sat down to actually write it, nothing seemed to come together. The words would not flow. The structure felt scattered. I would sit there with the desire to create something meaningful and walk away with very little to show for it.
Then one day I changed my approach. Instead of sitting down and trying to write the finished product immediately, I prepared. I built an outline. I laid out the structure piece by piece, organizing the flow before I tried to fill in the content. It took time. It did not feel like progress in the way writing a chapter would have felt like progress. But when I finally sat down to write what God had placed on my heart, it flowed in a way it never had before.
The preparation made the breakthrough possible.
Before Israel crossed into the Promised Land, before the waters of the Jordan parted, before any of the wonders that were about to unfold, Joshua gave the people a single instruction. Sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.
Notice the order. The wonders were coming. God had already determined that. But the people were instructed to prepare themselves first. Sanctification here means setting apart, consecrating, getting ready. It is the inward work that precedes the outward miracle. God was not asking Israel to earn what He was about to do. He was asking them to position themselves to receive it.
We often want the wonder without the preparation. We want the breakthrough to simply arrive while we remain exactly as we are, unchanged and unprepared. But Scripture consistently shows a different pattern. God moves powerfully, but He often asks His people to do the quiet, unseen work of getting ready before the visible moment of breakthrough takes place.
That preparation rarely looks impressive. An outline is not a finished book. Sanctifying yourself is not the miracle itself. It is the groundwork that makes the miracle possible to receive and recognize when it comes.
There may be something in your life right now that God is asking you to prepare for, even though you cannot yet see what tomorrow holds. A conversation you need to have before reconciliation can happen. A discipline you need to build before the door opens. A heart posture you need to address before God moves in the way you have been hoping for.
The wonders are coming. But the sanctifying comes first. Do not skip the preparation because it does not feel like progress. The outline always looks unimpressive next to the finished book. But without it, the words rarely flow the way they are meant to.
Prepare yourself today. Tomorrow may be the day God does what only He can do.
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About Another Well Ministries
Another Well Ministries exists to help people slow down, listen deeply, and encounter God in the ordinary places of life. Through devotionals, reflections, and spiritual resources, we seek to create space for faith to be formed with honesty, grace, and hope.
To learn more about the heart of the ministry or explore additional resources, visit anotherwell.org.
