He has not brought you this far to leave you
They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there… 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.
The Israelite after being in bondage for hundreds of years were set free by God through His Mighty Hands of deliverance through Moses. God took the children of Isreal out of Egypt (bondage, their past, the familiar,etc.), and promised to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey
And while on this journey He proved Himself worthy of their trust: He did many signs and wonders when they were in Egypt and defeated their enemies, fed them miraculously with manna daily when they were hungry, brought water from the rock when they were thirsty, was with them visibly as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night as they journeyed in the wilderness. He was with them and they knew it.
Same way in our individual journeys in life from where He has brought us(our past, our comfort zones, bondage, former situation of life etc.) He has proved Himself in every way to be there with us, He has delivered us from circumstances we didn’t know we could come out of and He has never failed us in this journey we are in with Him.
Now the same God who had been faithful to them, told the Israelites to keep going forward and enter into the land He had promised them. But they (like some of us) saw the land and all the good of the land, but they saw other things as well: the opposition, the obstacles, the challenges, the giants in the land
How many times have we gotten a sneak preview of God’s plan and immediately started calculating and mentally saying ‘this can’t be it…. Oh yes its rosy and colorful but the hurdles are too high for me to jump… If I jump, I’ll fall…the price to pay is too high’.
The Children of Israel said ‘Indeed the land is flowing with milk and honey but we can’t take it…we are not able ‘‘
- And they began to wish for Egypt
- For their past
- For their comfort zone
- For the familiar
…they agreed it was better to die in the familiar (Egypt or the wilderness) than to venture into the unknown with God
Children of God please you must believe that God has not brought you this far in your walk with Him to leave you stranded. He did not bring you this far to take you back to Egypt, He did not bring you this far without having a plan for how He will take you into the next level. It could be in any area of your life: Your ministry, your marriage, your career, your business, your spiritual life. Why are you looking back? Why do you feel frightened and discouraged?
Trust Him in the process and believe the destination is sure. It doesn’t matter how dry the wilderness is, He is taking you into the promised land. It doesn’t matter the giants already occupying the land, so long as He has promised you the land, He is sure to drive them out and give you the land.
Numbers 14:11 NKJV: Then the Lord said to Moses: “How long will these people reject Me? And how long will they not believe Me, with all the signs which I have performed among them?’
How did they reject God? By seeing themselves as grasshoppers and too small to defeat the giants and inhabitants of the land the Lord told them He will give them, they were unconsciously saying that God was not able to bring them to the land successfully.
It doesn’t matter how you see yourself, you may feel you are not able, you may feel inadequate for the plan, you may feel unqualified…but what matters is how God sees you. If he has promised you He will take you there, it means He is able to work in you and through you to achieve His plans and purpose for you. With God you are more than able. All you have to do is keep moving in the direction He is leading you and trust that He is able.
Will it always be a smooth ride? No. But on the bumpy days you must cast your mind back on how far He has brought you successfully. If you can remember how faithful He has been so far, then trust that He did not bring you this far to then leave you hanging.
Just hold on, keep faith….and stop looking back at Egypt
