Day 2390 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Joshua 21:45 NIV

It's almost our natural reaction to start losing hope whenever we become focused on our circumstances. As we talked about yesterday, we give our current situations the power to drag us into feeling miserable. We look at the discomfort and inconvenience of what we're going through and that quickly becomes all we can see. We don't see the lessons that God is trying to teach us. We don't see the opportunities to grow because of the trials. We only see how much we don't like it and that keeps us from finding any kind of good that we can take away.

As I was reading through Joshua last night this verse really just clicked. The people just finished dividing up the land that God had promised them. They had cleared out all the other people and nations that had been living in that land. They had taken on armies bigger and stronger than they were. They had managed to fight through the hard side of God's promises and now they were staring at the fulfillment of the hope and trust that they had all along.

That's the part that we often miss out on when we're busy whining about how hard something is. We miss out on seeing God do His thing. We miss out on watching His promises unfold because we expect those promises to happen quickly. We expect things to instantly change for our benefit, and when they don't, that leaves us open to doubt and worry. We think that since something doesn't change for the better right away that maybe God has changed His mind. Maybe He has forgotten His promises. Maybe He doesn't care anymore.

NONSENSE! It's all rubbish that our innate impatience and entitled way of thinking has fooled us into considering. Not once has God ever forgotten us. Not once has He ever turned away. Not once has He ever changed His mind about the promises that He has given us. Problem is that they do take time. They do require some work and effort on our part. He does ask us to trust Him even when we can't see the way or understand why it doesn't happen like we imagine it will. What we have to always remember is that His ways and His timing are different from ours, and His will always be right!

Our current situations are not permanent. They are temporary. Just like the Israelites back then. The wandering through the wilderness took 40 years, but it didn't last forever. The fighting they had to do against the people who lived in the land didn't last forever. The trials and tough days they faced were hard, but they didn't last forever. Folks, the God that led them all that time to the fulfillment of His promises is still the same God that is leading us today. His faithfulness to who He is and the promises He has has never wavered. And it never will.

Look, maybe we're in that wandering through the wilderness stage of the journey. Maybe we're staring down some situations that look bigger and stronger than us. Maybe we're stuck in this seemingly never-ending series of temporary struggles that has us convinced that they'll last forever. But they won't. It's all just a part of the journey to something better. They're all a part of the story that God is unfolding before our eyes that ends with the fulfillment of His promises. Trust Him!

Trust Him in the hard days. Trust Him when it doesn't make sense. Trust Him when you can't see how it can all work out. It will. It always has because He has always been faithful. It may take 40 years of uncertainty or a few years of fighting some big enemies. But God will get us where He promised to lead us. But we have to keep following Him and refuse to let the bumps along the way send us running for the doubt that we're so used to believing.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 3362 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Matthew 15:8 NIV It seems as though perhaps the distance from our heads to our hearts is, at times at least, much the same as the separation we so often feel between here and hope. For though our lips are geographically close to the hearts which pound inside a craving for more than we can say we need, say we know, yet sadly despite their being so near to our knowing what we need, we find that our mouths and our hearts are existing as if in two foreign places. Because while our heads may hold lips that let on that we know we need Heaven's hope as having come in Christ, our hearts remain among the ultimate deceivers as they lead us daily back into the brink wherein we break away all over again into disbelief as designed inside a heart’s desires kindling fires forsaking that faith which yearns only for a fellowship with He who is everything we could ever need. Indeed, it seems to matter not what our tongues here confess as our hearts head us always into following the path our mouths c...
Read more

Day 2045 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Luke 15:4 NIV Yesterday we talked about trusting that God has a purpose for His plans. Everything we face in life is there for a reason, and we can get something out of every trial in our path. I'm truly thankful that God doesn't give up on us or on the plans He has for our lives. Often times it may feel like tough love, but it's all just because He knows what we're capable of and won't give up on getting us where He knows we can be. We've all spent a large portion of our lives running away. From trials, from fears, from pain, from God. Whenever we see difficulties up ahead, we run the other direction. We want to just be left alone to do things our way so that we can make sure we find the path of least resistance. But God wants better for us than we even want for ourselves. And He will never give up pursuing us to lead us back to His path to the best life we could possibly live. I'm 32 years old, and oddly enough, I've discovered very recently that I kno...
Read more

Day 2179 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Image
Matthew 14:29 NIV We just talked about how we always have the choice to be happy in life. Personally I think that's one of the most important choices that we can make every single day. It will help with whatever comes our way. Let's be real here, very rarely are we prepared for what God leads us to in this journey. Not only do we not know what lies ahead, but most of the time we also don't know how His plans will work out. But they always do! All of us can talk a pretty good game. We can convince ourselves and those around us that our faith is rock solid and that nothing can faze us. We don't want anyone to see that we have worries, fears, doubts, and questions. We put up this brave exterior that tells the world that we're invincible. But underneath that is a heart that's prone to wavering and worrying about the things we're dealt in life. I firmly believe that there are a few really common things that help absolutely nobody. Being angry all the time. Seeing...
Read more