Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Don't be afraid...

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”


Blessings can be a beautiful thing, however, how often are we willing to accept them and how often is it we are willing to accept the responsibilities that come with them. So often it is easy for us to be excited about a new job, however, hate the thought of having to work and be their all day, so often we get excited about marriage, however, cringe at the thought of having to work at it, fight, or go through hard times. We’ll get excited about the newness and the novelty of something, however, when the time comes to jump into it, we cringe, we freeze up. Thoughts of past failures begin to creep in, the dreaded “what if” syndrome starts and what originally started as the most beautiful thing is now the very thing that is plaguing you. Or is it?

Is it the blessing or is it you? So often we like to shift blame and place our problems on the shoulders of something or someone else when in reality it is us. We are the issue. "if only my boss wasn't so nasty, if only my spouse wasn't so bitter, if only if only if only...". I make those statements on a daily basis and you know what I have found, doors swing both ways and we tend to place our problems on others rather than on our God.

God so often must remind us that He is with us. He promises to be with us wherever we go. He goes before us. It sounds rudimentary in our Christian walk but I think if there is something we often forget it is His presence. Difficulties strike and we wonder where He is, the what ifs begin to hit and we wonder why He would allow us to struggle and deal with those things. "God why would you set me up for failure?". I bet the children of Israel thought that to themselves at plenty of times. When reading through the story of their entrance into the promised land, I guess they forgot something Joshua had spoken back in Numbers 14:8, "if the Lord delights in us, He will bring us to AND give us this land." Notice is doesn't say bring us to and walk away. It says bring us to and give us, meaning, "He who begun a good work is faithful to complete it" which means God will keep His end, will you keep yours? We are called to trust, we are called to look unto Him, we are called to look past the what ifs, to see beyond the difficulties that lay ahead and remember the promised presence. Sometimes God does seem to be silent, but that's because He is going before us.

Sometimes, their will be a space between you and Him like their was in Joshua 3:4, but don't think He isn't with you. Don't think He forgot what He said in Joshua 1:9. The space is intended so that you can see that it is God who goes before you, the space is intended so that you can exercise the faith you have for so long asked God to increase. The space is meant to mature you and the space is meant to give you that which you really want, assurance. Assurance isn't something that rains down from heaven and gives us the goosebumps, assurance is experienced when we have that space between us and God and He shows up. When He turns around and says, "Ok, take a step into the water, I'm about to make the way and take you in a direction you have never been before". Maybe it is a new relationship, a new job, a new church, a new state, a new school. Whatever the case, You are promised His presence and though you may fear the worse case, don't ever think He brought you to this place for you to die. He did it because He has something in mind for you and all you need is a strand of faith.

1 comment:

  1. Amen. Remember the word spoken, don't go ahead of God :)

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