Deuteronomy 1:26-31
26 “But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God and refused to go in. 27 You complained in your tents and said, ‘The Lord must hate us. That’s why he has brought us here from Egypt—to hand us over to the Amorites to be slaughtered. 28 Where can we go? Our brothers have demoralized us with their report. They tell us, “The people of the land are taller and more powerful than we are, and their towns are large, with walls rising high into the sky! We even saw giants there—the descendants of Anak!”’29 “But I said to you, ‘Don’t be shocked or afraid of them! 30 The Lord your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt. 31 And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.’
The people of Israel had been lead out of Egypt, a place where they had been slaves for years. God had given them Moses, and told them that he had new life for them, and that they were to take this land.
This is a story that is true for many of us as believers. We have all been in places in our lives where we have been slaves to something, drugs, sex, pornography, etc, but God has shown us that he doesn’t want us to live as slaves to that any longer. That’s when we take hold of his promise and we try to live it out to reach that desired land where he wants us to be, but we keep holding ourselves back because we can’t get away from our past because we find comfort in those things we needed to give up, or we look ahead at the land in front of us and see nothing but opposition and we get overwhelmed with doubt. For us to have that new beginning with God, we need to have faith in the words he has spoken over us.
It took the Israelites over 40 years to complete a journey that was meant to take 11 days. The reason for this was doubt, unbelief. Are you missing out on the calling God has for you because of unbelief, because you see giants along the path in front of you? Today I want to tell you to put your faith completely in God, it’s not always easy, but it is easier than to wander around for 40 years when you should be entering into the promise land in just about 2 weeks.
Stepping into God’s will and pursing His calling for our lives also requires change and growth- which almost always means discomfort and pain at first. It’s incredible how much people are willing to put up with if they don’t have to change. We will run back to a destructive and stressful relationship, damage our bodies with substances, and remain content with mediocre lives just so we don’t have to change. I pray that God gives me strength and courage to put with the momentary pain and discomfort that comes with change. If it gets me closer to Him, then it’s worth it. Anything nearer to my Father is far better than where I am now.
This is SO good!! “…we can’t get away from our past because we find comfort in those things we needed to give up, or we look ahead at the land in front of us and see nothing but opposition…” This is true even of the intagible things like old habits and mind sets. It’s much easier and less painful sometimes to find comfort in those old ways of thinking instead of trusting God and all that He has for us. This is definitely a reminder to me: remember that God sees what lies ahead… AND knows exactly how to get us to the finish line!