God said, “I’ve taken a good, long look at the affliction of my people in Egypt. I’ve heard their cries for deliverance from their slave masters; I know all about their pain. And now I have come down to help them, pry them loose from
the grip of Egypt, get them out of that country and bring them to a good land with wide-open spaces, a land lush with milk and honey, the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.Exodus 3:7–8 (MSG)
God says that He took a good long look at the affliction of His people in Egypt. He heard the cries for deliverance from their slave masters. I know all about their pain. (woah) and He says NOW I have come down to help them, and pry them loose from the grip of Egypt, get them out of the country and bring them to a good land with space and that is lush with milk and honey. the land of….
There are times God speaks to us in regards to where we are. (I am going to heal you from…) There are other times He doesn’t speak to us but we know that based off the Word, who He is. (He is a healer) Either way, it is a truth we can fall back on. In the scripture above He spoke, yet there was still a journey to be walked out. I always hope for some radical moment with God, for Him to come and throw some fairy dust on me and BAM all is well now. I honestly even think sometimes that would be the best way for Him to receive all the Glory. God this would be the best way ever!!! I could scream it around the world for you and it would draw people in to knowing you and seeing that you are powerful and list continues.. on and on.. Then I stop dead in my tracks after seeing the whole world come to Jesus because He was faithful to me. I realize how much I just planned this and essentially it all points back to me… not to Him. I wonder often if God gets more glory from the story and journey to the promised than the glory I would get if I were just to arrive all the sudden. Can God show up in a moment? Of course! Is it any less amazing if He choses to take me on a long walk in regards to it? No, I love walks on the beach! Its not to negate God’s power at all. It’s more just a place to see that my heart would take the glory and not give the glory back to God. I would probably get self righteous and try to formulate it and then make it the next big “christian trend, how to arrive guide”. (I just exposed that thing for you all to read). See I think there needs to be time lines to God’s goodness. I place dates on my process. I place goals and all these expectations. I imagine that the Israelites did the same thing. YAY! He is getting us out of here, and soon we will be in the land of fullness and lush abundance. I can just close my eyes and see myself there. Are you there with me? Then I wake up and realize wait I am not there yet. I am on my way but I haven’t got there yet. I am faced with the challenges much like them. It is easy to complain and struggle although I have a promise from God. In my mind I think the spoken word is my key to the promise land. Often times it is the key and what I fall back on but I realize there is no door of arrival in front of me. The Word was the invitation to partner with Him on where we were going but more times than not, I interpreted it as if I had already made it! Finally! Its here!! All forgetting, its an invitation to walk with Him and allow Him into these places as we journey through my heart of thistles and thorns so that we can begin to till the land to cultivate a capacity that can steward a promise land.
I am taking in the spoken word and the written word in a different view today as I let this wash over me. There is an invitation to partner with Him on this walk. To take the key He is handing me and realize it is not for a door that I arrived at but rather a key that opens the tool shed to the many tools needed to prepare my heart for the promise land. Shovels that will dig up that which is needed to let light shine in the places that need light. Tractors that will take away all the weeds and hardened soil where I have lost sight of the truth. Clippers that will purge the dead branches so that life may burst forth as spring time rolls in.
I’m not sure about you but I am seeing that it is easy in the moment to say YES, I have a promise. But as you walk it out it can become harder and there are moments you seem further away than you feel close to getting there. That is the moment we get to use the truth that was given to us and lean into Him or we can chose hopelessness and find ourselves much like the Israelites wondering around in the wilderness complaining. God’s goal is my heart and that is what He is after. He uses all things to point to the fact that He just wants more of me. I have given my yes to the invitation that was given to me with every promise that has been spoken to me and or has been revealed to me through the word. That yes will come with a walk and at times that walk may be hard, Christ in me says “we got this”!
You can do this. Cling to the Lord and know that He is a promise keeper!
Recent Comments